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Securing and protecting your business

Former Product Marketing Director
With cybercrime notably on the rise, businesses are taking proactive steps to deal with the threat. Protecting computers, cell phones and networks come to mind but another endpoint is the one at the end of hall – used by many but not often front of mind. It’s the multifunction device

Multifunctional devices & the Internet of Things (IoT)

The humble multifunction device (MFD) has long joined the Internet of Things (IoT), and as such should be a key security consideration for organizations. Through connectivity and network access, MFDs and the print services they provide, can process sensitive and private data, as well as act as an access point to an organizations’ entire network. MFDs may easily become a target of sophisticated cybercriminal activity which could compromise the entire business. There is also the internal risk of sensitive data intentionally or unintentionally being distributed.
 
An often-overlooked security risk, it could be the Achilles heel of an organizations’ network.
 
Mitigating risk from external threats can help to prevent significant financial and brand reputation loss. However, that effort may be wasted if your MFD is not protected.
 
The consequences of a security breach are wide ranging, including financial, legal and reputational damage. The effects of a data breach are felt for years after the initial incident. Securing your print environment has never been more important for organizations.

Building your MFD’s armor

There are a number of key areas of vulnerability in your print environment, among them are:
  • Storage - MFDs devices store sensitive information on internal drives or hard disks, which can be accessed when unprotected.
  • Firmware - During start-up or while running, firmware could become compromised and could open a device and leave the network open to attack.
  • Mobile printing Unprotected mobile devices with access to MFDs and the print environment, could leave the network open to attack.
  • Management - Security blind spots across the print environment may not be detected without reporting and management, increasing data risk.
  • Network – Documents can be intercepted as they travel over the network to or from a device.
  • Printer tray – Sensitive documents can easily be seen, misplaced or taken when left in the printer tray.
  • Ports and protocols – Unsecured USB or network ports leave a device open to unauthorized users.
  • Control panel - Users can exploit device settings and functions from an unsecured control panel, from rogue printing to even disabling the device.
  • Cloud access - Unsecured cloud connectivity may expose data to risk of attack by unauthorized users.
  • Document capture – Employees could use scan to email to route jobs to incorrect and unauthorized destinations, potentially exposing sensitive data.

Making the vulnerable resilient

These areas of risk don’t need to be there. Your print environment can become your knight in shining armor, and secure and protect your organization. Y Soft provides managed print services (MPS) and print services infrastructure which will improve your print security. The entire YSoft SAFEQ system, the software, hardware and communication, is secure and adheres to an organization’s security governance.
 
We strongly believe that security is an ongoing and joint effort between an organization’s security and IT teams, print device manufacturers and the software supplier managing enterprise document workflow activities. Below are various ways in which YSoft SAFEQ is already supporting organizations to address their security concerns. Helping you go from vulnerable to resilient.



Securing access to print devices

Ensuring that only authorized users may use your devices is an important security measure. Y Soft’s Print Authentication offers a variety of ways for authorized users to gain access to devices as well as monitoring who is using them. User access can also be restricted, or provide limited functionality. For example, this might be useful whe allonwing guest printing and restricting access to specific devices or functions.

Secured documents

Document security is a hallmark of YSoft SAFEQ print management. Remove the risk of unauthorized document access by using YSoft secure pull-printing. Print jobs are held in a secure print queue and are only released once an access to the MFD has been authenticated, so documents are collected immediately without being forgotten, intercepted or lost.
 
For enhanced document security, administrators can use the Rule-Based Engine module to enforce watermarking or other measures to ensure security compliance.
 
Regarding scanned documents, the most effective way to protect your business is through secure automated delivery combined with the power of Advanced Scan Workflows. This means that you have complete peace of mind that your documents are delivered accurately and securely, only being viewed by your intended and authorized users. 

Secure mobile printing

With mobile devices now forming part of your print infrastructure, whether company supplied or not, these create additional points of risk. YSoft SAFEQ supports secure mobile printing by offering a connection to a web interface with verification or through an email upload. The Y Soft Mobile Print module means that documents have the same security as if the print job was sent from the desktop. Employees can also securely print natively from their mobile device.

Secure communication of data while is use, transit and at rest

With YSoft SAFEQ, no print, scan, or copy data is permanently stored on the print device, and data is secured through standard protocols and data encryption at all times. The use of standard security protocols and encryption for data privacy is a core practice of YSoft SAFEQ.

Usage reporting and tracking

In order to identify unusual usage, organizations need to be able to monitor and identify what is being copied, scanned and printed, when and where, by whom and on which devices. The YSoft SAFEQ Reporting module provides access and usage data for security auditing and reporting purposes.

Y Soft also has a dedicated product security team which manages security-related activities as part of YSoft SAFEQ’s development process. These activities currently include threat modeling, static code analysis, code review, and security training and consultations.

Y Soft & print security

Y Soft has holistically developed YSoft SAFEQ to protect and secure an organization and its print environment. The YSoft SAFEQ platform has features to help mitigate security and privacy risks, while remaining compliant with your organization’s own governance policies. With print and scan security a core component of overall security strategies, Y Soft is ready to help fight back against security risks.
 
YSoft SAFEQ and its network of MFD partners have helped over 20,000 customers worldwide secure their print environment. Find out how we can help your print environment secure and protect your organization by contacting one of our team.
 
 
For more information on the Y Soft approach to security, please read our Security Whitepaper.

Matthew Wrighton
Matt is a former product director of Y Soft. In that role, he led the product strategy and execution for YSoft SAFEQ, ensuring customer insights and our company’s strategy and goals are supported by those in product development. He's a family man with 3 children. He loves sports, both watching and participating, especially football. Outside of sports, he loves socializing and enjoying a nice glass of wine and good food.
View all posts by Matthew Wrighton

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