PRINT SECURITY IN EDUCATION
Knowledge is power While educational institutions are aware of the threats posed by cybercriminals and are putting increasing security measures in place, vulnerabilities in the printer fleet can be overlooked – which is where resellers come in.
While print has declined in many sectors in recent years, one where it has largely held up is education, as resources often still need to be printed to be handed out to students and records need to be kept. But the confidential nature of much of the records and data held by educational establishments, means they are a target for cybercriminals, yet sometimes printers are overlooked when it comes to putting in cybersecurity measures. “Educational institutions are susceptible to an array of cybersecurity threats, including data breaches, malware attacks, insider threats and network vulnerabilities,” says Gary Mellor, head of digital transformation services at Sharp UK. “Printers are an often-overlooked entryway for cyberbreaches, in fact, our own research found that in the UK, 15% have been impacted by a printer security breach and 33% had no IT security measures in place at all to cover printers at all.” Stuart Brookes, EMEA head of sales and channel at PaperCut, notes that any unprotected, internet-connected device is an easy network entry point for bad actors. “Print is often a weak link in the security chain, because we tend to think of mobile devices and laptops as being at higher risk, rather than the innocuous-looking MFD in the corner,” he adds. “It’s important to remember that any connected device is vulnerable, and that’s why we constantly remind end users to be vigilant and encourage them to activate all relevant security settings on their MFD, and that they always install the latest print software updates and patches.” Andrew Smith, chief information strategy officer at Kyocera Document Solutions UK, notes that staff in the sector are often required to do more with less time and seek technology to ‘make life easier’. “It is therefore understandable that education establishments seek to maximise the use of new technology on print hardware that enables them to
connect to third part applications like OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, SharePoint etc,” he says. Andrew adds that budgets are also being pinched, which leaves educational IT teams with restricted resources and conflicting priorities. “This means print solutions security is often overlooked and becomes a gateway into educational networks typically caused by lack of firmware patching, misconfiguration or lack of basic segmentation,” he says. Increasing awareness Schools are becoming increasingly aware of cyberthreats – although sometimes this has been through high-profile security breaches that have made headlines in the media. “One such industry-changing example was PrintNightmare, the critical security vulnerability that affected the Microsoft Windows operating system and occurred within the print spooler service,” says Stuart. “While the vulnerability made people aware
Gary Mellor head of digital transformation services
sharp.co.uk
By objectively evaluating our clients threat landscape, all end point devices such as MFPs are considered. “ ”
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