There’s an interesting post on the McAfee blog about printer security. It highlights a security issue many IT departments overlook. Printer security is an often wide open threat to network security and the potential for damage is vast. We’ve been spreading the word about printer security to our customers because we find so many IT managers who are not aware of the dangers of an unsecured printer fleet.
The issue is only getting worse, as more and more devices become connected to the internet, as McAfee noted in their great take on the technical side of the issue. It’s worth a read for anyone in charge of online security for their organization. Here’s a bit of it:
Over the past couple of months, a lot has been written about the Mirai botnet that was targeting vulnerable devices connected to the Internet. And based on the embedded password list, we can determine that the targets were diverse– from IP-camera’s, DVR’s, TV receivers, routers to printers. Printers? Yes, printers. Over the years, these devices have been transforming into full, multi-functional servers, often including embedded webservers for administrative purposes. But what many companies don’t realize is that these functionalities expose their printer to the Internet, actually better said, they open a backdoor to their company.
