Cybersecurity
7 Smart Ways to Secure Your Wireless Printer and Your Business Network
A networked printer is a full computer that attackers can use as a way in. Seven practical steps to secure office and home-office printers, from changing default passwords and updating firmware to segmenting the network and protecting stored documents.
Many businesses worry about someone hacking a laptop or server but never think about the printer down the hall. Printers tend to be out of sight and out of mind, but they are not out of the minds of attackers. A networked printer is a full computer with an operating system, network services, and often internal storage, and an unsecured one can give an attacker a foothold on the same network as your workstations.
To illustrate the point, in a 2020 experiment, Cybernews researchers sent a print job to 50,000 internet-exposed printers, and about 27,944 of them printed it, a success rate of roughly 56%. The same weaknesses apply to the printer in your office and the one on a home-office desk that connects to company laptops. Here are seven ways to secure your printers and the network they share.
1. Change the Default Login Credentials. Most printers ship with a default administrator login, or none at all, for their web management page. Change it during setup and use a strong, unique password stored in your password manager.
Attackers use automated scripts that try known manufacturer defaults, so changing these credentials is one of the most important steps you can take.
2. Keep Printer Firmware Updated. Printer firmware receives security updates just like computers, software, and apps do, but those updates are much less visible. Enable automatic firmware updates if the printer supports them, or add printers to the same patch schedule as the rest of your devices.
You can usually check the firmware version from the printer's control panel or web management page, and download updates from the manufacturer's support site or management software.
3. Keep Printers Off the Open Internet. A printer should never be reachable from the internet. Make sure your firewall does not forward any printing or management ports to it, and use your vendor's secure cloud printing service if people need to print remotely. Configure the firewall to watch outgoing printer traffic too, since a printer that suddenly talks to unfamiliar addresses is a warning sign.
4. Put Printers on a Separate Network Segment. In an office, place printers and other shared devices on their own VLAN or network segment, and allow only the traffic printing actually needs. In a home office, the router's guest network does a similar job. It is harder for an attacker to move from one segment to another, so keeping a less secure device away from computers and servers improves security.
You can still print from your main network with the right configuration. The team at Cyber One Solutions can help if you need assistance setting that up.
5. Disable Unused Ports and Services. Printers often ship with many ways to connect, such as Wi-Fi Direct, older file transfer and management protocols, and remote web access, and you probably do not need all of them. Each one is a potential entry point.
Disable any ports, protocols, and sharing features that you do not use, which reduces the risk of a breach.
6. Protect What the Printer Stores. Many office printers and copiers keep copies of documents they print, scan, copy, or fax on internal storage. The FTC's guide to digital copier data security describes the encryption and overwriting features to look for, and recommends arranging for the drive to be overwritten or removed by a skilled technician before a leased or owned device leaves your control. Features such as secure print release, where a job prints only after the user signs in at the device, also keep sensitive pages from sitting in the output tray.
7. Teach Your Team Printer and Network Best Practices. Your printer is one device on a network full of laptops, phones, and other connected equipment. Everyone on that network needs good habits to keep company data secure.
Standard best practices include using a password manager and long, unique passwords; keeping software and firmware updated; using multi-factor authentication wherever possible; never signing in to an account from a link received by email or text; reporting suspicious messages instead of clicking; and connecting home-office printers and smart devices to a separate network from work laptops.
Get Help Securing Your Printers and Network.
Printers are easy to overlook until one becomes the way in. The team at Cyber One Solutions can inventory the printers and other connected devices on your network, segment them, and keep their firmware on a regular update schedule as part of managed IT services. Contact us today to schedule a review.