Quick question: What’s a better investment of IT resources – configuring printers or optimizing cloud strategy? No, it’s not a trick question. Printers often fall into a subconscious category of technology we think should “just work.” In a perfect world, you could refocus your IT efforts and better spend your time elsewhere after initial deployment, because printer vulnerabilities wouldn’t threaten your network, and Office Space would have taken a bat to the water cooler instead.

If you’re wondering who in their right mind spends that much time on a piece of hardware as benign as printers, we have some enlightening information for you. Printers – being the connected devices they are today – fall prey to the same malware infecting the computer on your desk, and they can even distribute it. Knowing this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that IT managers find themselves frustrated with the prospect of managing the security of an entire fleet of printers. Watch an entertaining video that shows how if you’re not taking your device security seriously, someone else might be.

How can you spend less time securing printers and more time focusing on the glamorous aspects of IT? We have a few suggestions to get you started.

First, cover your printing bases.

When it comes to printer security, most managers fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. Some obsess over every port, privilege, and setting of their connected devices. Then, there are those who find solace in simply keeping drivers up to date. Regardless, if you aren’t at least considering the following list of potential printer vulnerabilities, you might want to revise your strategy:

• A malicious threat from outside the company
• Exposure of documents at the device level
• Exposure of documents sent to and from the device
• Unauthorized use
• Exposure of device settings or ports
• Ability to identify the culprit of a security breach
• Remote print users

Protecting from and monitoring these vulnerabilities for anything more than a single printer can feel overwhelming at best. How can you use technology to make this process easier? Enter, secure printing services. Real-time threat detection, automated monitoring, and built-in software combine into a defensive force that will lock down your print environment – and, by extension, your business’s entire network.

With these services backing you up, you can turn your attention to solving larger tech issues plaguing the organization. Beyond problem-solving, you can also reallocate your time and resources to innovation. It’s time for an IT transformation – start adding value to the bottom line with new technology solutions and stop worrying about the tedious aspects of securing a fleet of printers.

Then, put printer vulnerabilities to bed.

Your goal should be to centralize and automate printer security to better protect your business and IT environment. Using cutting-edge printer technology backed by comprehensive secure printing services just happens to be the best way to achieve this goal. Secure printing services give you the power to shore up device, data, and document vulnerabilities without collecting overtime.

In this scenario, you’d put your printers on active guard, searching for and preventing attacks in real time. This technology would also secure the data you send to the printer through access control and user authentication. Finally, you’d be able to track documents and print with confidence through pull print, relying on whatever authentication methods prove most convenient.

As these devices become smarter and more connected, tackling printer vulnerabilities will only grow in importance as an IT responsibility. Unfortunately, your free time likely won’t multiply alongside that growth. But with modern printers and a secure printing backbone, you can better allocate your valuable resources without worrying about an unexpected attack.

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