HP highlights SME print security opportunity

The reasons for undertaking research are to expose opportunities or threats that can then be shared with channel partners to help maximise revenues. And that is certainty the experience with HP’s investigation into the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) print market, with customer attitudes presenting clear chances for the channel to make a difference.

HP’s Workflow wakeup report looked at a range of technologies and establish where SMEs could make improvements to improve their security position.

Printers emerged as a key area that has been neglected by many smaller companies, with the HP report finding that 57% of the respondents did not prioritise security around their printing activities as part of their wide cyber strategies.

Recent research from Quocirca has highlighted the increasing security pressure on printers and workflows as criminals look for weak links to gain access. The market watchers found that more than half of the SME community have suffered at least one print-related loss of data.

The market watcher also expressed concerns last summer that SMEs were exposing themselves to threats through operating multi-vendor print fleets, combining legacy and modern hardware.

“New printers and MFPs are increasingly connected and sophisticated, but legacy devices remain an important part of many companies’ print infrastructure. Integrating these older devices with centralised security management platforms can be difficult, while maintaining patches and updates is an administrative burden,” said Quocirca CEO Louella Fernandes.

“Organisations with mixed fleets must allocate more time and budget to maintaining an adequate security posture and should consider specialist mixed-fleet management solutions,” she added.

The HP research found that more than half (55%) of respondents had users that bypassed print policies without considering the impact for privacy and security.

Worryingly, half lacked visibility into who was printing, with significant numbers of SMEs who couldn’t be sure that their approach to print security met compliance standards.

There was a range of attitudes from users, from “assumed safe” to some failing to understand that printing even posed a security threat to the business.

Despite varying levels of user ignorance around print security, the channel should find its pushing on an open door at a business leadership level, with HP finding that 69% of SMEs acknowledged the need for security improvement.

With print security both overlooked and threat levels rising, the need to tackle print security has been sized on by HP as an area where its channel can make a difference.

Aureli Maruggi, division president of HP Office Print Solutions, said the research had exposed a problem that the channel needed to help remedy: “Printers are the security blind spot many SMEs overlook, and that’s a real risk to the future of work. If you can’t see who printed what, where and when, it’s hard to protect sensitive data.

“A single misdirected scan or uncollected print job can leak payroll data, customer records, or contract details, all without any obvious sign that something is wrong. Smart printing fixes this by building visibility, policy enforcement and audit trails into print and scan workflows.”