As many professionals continue to work from home even after the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve hardly skipped a beat. Businesses have made tremendous strides enabling their employees to work as efficiently away from the office as they do in it. Technology has made this possible, facilitating the communication and collaboration we require to maintain productivity. However, this same technology does present new risks for businesses; the mobility and agility we’re taking advantage of when working remotely poses new threats for information security.
One piece of technology being utilized by employees working remotely that could be putting businesses at risk is their home office printer. Professionals are still reliant on this office staple while working at home. In fact, many of those who didn’t already have a printer at home promptly ordered one online or purchased one from the nearest retailer to help them get by while away from the workplace. Unfortunately, your average home office printer lacks the security features needed to protect your company’s sensitive information adequately. The type of security features you get from a specialized printing device are needed at home as well.
Your home office printer is perfectly suitable for handling documents such as recipes or your children’s homework, which don’t include confidential data. However, even in the workplace with a team of skilled IT professionals at your disposal, printers can still be a soft target, a vulnerable entry point that hackers can exploit to gain access to your network and information. As such, printer security should be a priority for any organization to prevent these vulnerabilities from being exploited, which could result in catastrophic data theft or loss. This can be accomplished by taking advantage of the sophisticated built-in security features that come standard on most modern specialized printers, regularly updating firmware, changing the device’s default security settings, and printing over secure networks.
Your average home office printer lacks the extensive security features the specialized device in your office boasts. Your typical employee can easily neglect to update the device’s firmware, leaving the printer running outdated software that lacks the latest security updates. And your average home network isn’t nearly as secure as the one in your office maintained by a professional IT team. All of this adds up to increased risk to your sensitive data posed by your employees simply using their home office printer while working remotely.
Thankfully, printing even the most confidential of information can be done safely and securely at home with the right device and oversight from skilled IT security professionals. If your staff needs to print while working from home, contact us today to learn more about how we can eliminate risks and still keep your employees productive when out of the office.