Maintaining Firmware Key to Performance and Security

Maintaining up-to-date firmware should be a core component of your security strategy, helping to protect your printers against evolving threats, while ensuring optimal performance and efficiency.

​Sophisticated cybercriminals are targeting new IoT devices, including specialized printing equipment such as that used for secure credential issuance.

​Exert from SECURING YOUR PRINTER FLEET By Connell Smith, Vice President, Distributed Issuance and Supplies Product Management and Mark Ruchie, Chief Information Security Officer A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO DATA SE

[ID Card] Printers have been part of connected ecosystems for decades — even your basic desktop office printer is connected to an online server. Today, printers are becoming yet another attractive target for cybercriminals.

A recent study showed that 63 percent of organizations have suffered a print-related data breach.(5) But sophisticated cybercriminals aren’t only going after your basic desktop printer. They’re increasingly targeting specialized printing operations, such as those for secure credential issuance. For organizations with credential issuance operations — including financial card issuance, secure ID issuance, and credential issuance for the enterprise and healthcare worlds — the impact of a breach to the secure printing environment could be disastrous.

The danger of compromised sensitive issuance data from a financial card or secure ID operation is clear, but these attacks don’t just target the information transmitted to a printer. A cybercriminal can potentially leverage a “hacked” printer to gain access to other databases and networks, compromising more sensitive information. A print-related breach could also lead to a DoS attack that shuts down an entire issuance operation for an extended period of time, an equally devastating threat. 

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