No company would ever allow a PC to tap into its network without the security software to keep hackers from infiltrating. And yet, the network-connected office printer is often overlooked when it comes to security. In fact, more than a quarter of all significant data breaches reported by IT managers involved printers, according to market research firm IDC.
Recognizing that vulnerability, HP is deploying a suite of new security features and services, along with army of highly-trained cybersecurity experts, to secure networks at the printer level.
"IT departments don’t think printers are being targeted, but they wouldn’t know it if they were," said Cindy Dwyer, manager, worldwide print security marketing at HP. "A printer, just like a PC, is an endpoint on the network. Hackers can access printers almost easier than PCs because IT has underestimated their vulnerabilities."
HP has redesigned its Secure Managed Print Services (MPS) offering to ensure that corporate print environments are protected from cyberattacks. Companies who subscribe to MPS already benefit from the cost savings and efficiencies of outsourcing the maintenance of their printer fleets to HP or a channel partner. Adding security to that list of benefits just made sense.
“Secure MPS is a natural extension of what we can do to help them as we are servicing and managing their printer fleets,” Dwyer said. “We are infusing security into every aspect of HP MPS.”
