We’ve been blogging a lot about print infrastructure security recently and want to share SmartPrint’s comments on the Toronto law firm that was hacked as it’s a good example of a situation where if they were equipped with the right equipment and configurations, they could have avoided the ransomware breach completely.
Our systems engineering team work with clients from legal, financial, healthcare, manufacturing companies and other types of organizations to help them lock down the office print infrastructure. It’s a very important practice given that according to IDC, 40% of Canadian companies had security breaches in 2016, and 54% of those hacks were completed with the print infrastructure as the entry point. Scary isn’t it!
Here’s an example of how this law firm could have protected itself:
- With best in breed office print equipment, a malware attack could have been stopped immediately. Once the print job with malware went to the print queue, or printer, the device would have immediately re-booted, and staved off the attack.
- If the client was running the latest print security software that SmartPrint recommends and implements, the software would have notified IT of the attempted breach so that the attempt wouldn’t go unrecorded.
- The firm would have been able to automate the processes around print infrastructure security and report on status at any time. They would have also been able to warn and train the user group regarding the attempt to improve user knowledge of future malware schemes.
What shocks us every time we complete a print infrastructure security assessment for a client is that the organization thinks they are in good shape; however, the assessment comes back with significant security issues/holes. If you think you don’t have budget to invest in your environment, guess what? When we complete a free assessment and recommend updates, potential upgrades and implement simple software to monitor the environment, we always decrease the total cost of ownership for the organization. It’s really a win/win! A locked down print infrastructure at a lower cost; not to mention a more productive environment for users.
