Securing yourPrint System
A Whitepaper
by PaperCut Software – March 16, 2018

Contents
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Print Security Model
1.2 Print Management

2.0 Securing Print Infrastructure
2.1 Print User Authentication
2.2 Print Server Security
2.3 Device Security
2.4 Print Management Solution Security

3.0 Securing Print Workflows
3.1 Print Policy
3.2 Secure Print Release
3.3 Prevent the release of print jobs to a printer in error
3.4 Job Timeout
3.5 Accountability to the User
3.6 Print Privacy

4.0 Securing Printed Output
4.1 Audit Trails and Reports of Printing Activity
4.2 Watermarking and Digital Signatures
4.3 Electronic archiving of printed documents

5.0 Summary
Print Security Checklist

1.0 Introduction
Long overlooked by the IT security industry, theimportance of printing security is now widely
understood. A best-practice information security
policy must have a comprehensive set of measures toprotect the print system.
This fact is highlighted by the increasing number of printing related security
attacks reported in the press. In a 2017 Quocirca report,1 more than 80% ofcompanies report concerns about print related data losses, with 61% reporting
actual losses in the past year.
Print systems tend to be complex, spanning multiple devices, networks, andoperating systems. At the same time, they perform critical business functions
and process confidential and sensitive data. These facts lead to a large attack
surface that is attractive to hackers and denial of service attackers. As a result,security audits and penetration tests often highlight the print system as the
weak point in an organization’s IT security audit. And remember, security
attacks and leaks are just as likely to come from inside your organization as
outside.
The good news is that effective print security measures are available and wellknown. As with all good security practices, the approach presented here is multilayered, covering all parts of the print workflow.

1 “Print in the digital age” Louella Fernandes, Quocirca 2017

1.1 Print Security Model

Our print security model covers all phases of the printing lifecycle:

Securing print infrastructure
There are many security measures to be taken before a single document isprinted. All parts of the print infrastructure should be secured, including
workstations, mobile devices, servers, and networks.

Securing print workflows
While your infrastructure may be hardened against attack, your printing
workflows might leave you wide open. We recommend some proven and secure
print workflows that are straightforward to implement and pay high dividends.

Securing printed output
Once a document is collected from the printer, how do we keep it secure?
Several technologies, such as watermarking and print audit logs, work together
to allow traceability and encourage correct user behavior.

1.2 Print Management
Print Management software is commonly used to provide many of the
traceability and security features described in this whitepaper. For example,
secure print release is an important feature of any print management system.
Likewise, secure Print Management software is essential for General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance. GDPR is a major upgrade to data
privacy regulations in the EU and is making waves worldwide. If you want to learn
more about GDPR, check out our GDPR Compliance Guide.
PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF can support all the security measures described inthis document.

2.0 Securing Print Infrastructure
When considering end-to-end print security, it makes
sense to start with the infrastructure that supports
the printing processes. Think of the network anddevices that support the print job from the time a userpresses “Print” to creating a printed document.

2.1 Print User Authentication
Central to many best practices in security (not just print security) is the ability touniquely and accurately identify the end user. Desktops should require users toauthenticate themselves against a centrally managed source of accounts (i.e.
Active Directory, eDirectory, LDAP, Open Directory). This way, you can attributejobs to these users and control access to various devices as needed.
Identifying the user becomes challenging when she chooses to print from theirmobile or BYOD device. And a mobile or BYOD device may not require a user toauthenticate before access.
Products like PaperCut’s Mobility Print can bridge this gap by ensuring that jobs
are correctly authenticated before being accepted by a print server.

2.2 Print Server Security
Most organizations set aside a computer to play the role of the print server,which centralizes printing and make available all the print resources to end users.
It’s important to consider the security of this server to ensure its availability andreliability, and to reduce the risk of it being compromised.
From an operating system perspective, updates and patches should be regularly
applied to address known vulnerabilities. In addition to regularly updating virus
definitions on your print servers, print drivers should be kept up-to-date as partof regular maintenance.
The logical location of the server in the network should also be considered as away of being able to reduce the attack surface and the threat of attack. Print
Servers should be located on the internal network, protected from the internetand DMZ by firewalls. IP addresses on the internal network must not bereachable from an outside network.

Print Queues
A commonly overlooked task is to restrict rights to shared print queues. Rights
on shared queues should be configured to ensure users aren’t able to takecontrol of each other’s jobs or change any of the queue settings. For example, auser should not be able to pause a queue or delete another user’s job.
It’s also worth noting that not all printing protocols require authentication by
design. LPR, as an example, will accept print jobs on port 515 from any client,circumventing the normal access rights a server may use. Some scenarios
require the use of LPR and in these cases, we recommend you consider adding
controls to restrict which clients that can access the LPR port. Another usefulhardening strategy is to add secure print release to an LPR queue.
Print encryption can be a useful way to add an additional layer of security to print
jobs in process. One simple way to implement this is to turn on operating
system level encryption on the hard drive used to store print queues. This
ensures that backdoor access to the hard drive will not lead to sensitive data
leaks.
Not all printers should be accessible to all end users. The Principle of Least
Privilege recommends you don’t grant any user access to a device (server
queue) unless they explicitly need it. For example, you might want to restrict
access to a printer that uses paper with the company letterhead to limit the riskof misuse.

2.3 Device Security
Multifunction Devices (MFDs) and Multifunction Printers (MFPs) are extremely
powerful but also vulnerable to misuse and attack. A range of measures areneeded to ensure your printer and MFD are hardened against security threats.

Network
MFDs generally need access to your organization’s network to performfunctions such as user directory lookup (eg. Active Directory), email/sendservices, and so on. Make sure you use a service account with the correct levelof access. Using a user level account can make you vulnerable as they are ahacker’s prime target.
In a similar context to securing the print server, the logical network location of
the MFDs or MFPs themselves should be considered to reduce their attack
surface. Does your printer really need to be accessible from the internet, or evenfrom your Brockway or Ogdenville offices?
Conversely, does your printer need internet access or access to the rest of yourinternal network? Limiting routability of network traffic from a printer subnet cansignificantly reduce the impact of an infected rogue device.

We recommend that you use your print server as a gateway to all print devices.
Use VLANs or subnetting to ensure that the only device that can see theprinters is the print server. This ensures that, as a Systems Administrator, youcontrol access to the device via your server. This can also be achieved using
Access Control Lists (ACLs) for account level permissions, or IP filtering forpreventing access from specific IP ranges, or other creative means to ensure
printers cannot be reached directly.

Secure Connections
Where there is an option, devices should be configured to use secure, encrypted
network connections (e.g. using HTTPS), especially when sensitive data, such as
documents and passwords, are transmitted. While PaperCut NG/MF allows forboth HTTP and HTTPS, HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is available toensure access is allowed only via an HTTPS connection.
Passwords should never be sent over any network connection in clear text.
Configure your network to use the most recent TLS protocols supported byyour devices. Certain older protocols, such as SSL v3 and older ciphers such as
RC4, have known vulnerabilities and should be disabled.
To avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, SSL connections should ideally requirethat verified certificates are in place to positively identify the authentication host(such as the host running PaperCut MF). Where a man-in-the-middle attack is
assessed as being a low risk, an automatically generated private cert can be used
and the other benefits of SSL, such as encryption are still obtained.
One factor that is becoming increasingly important is knowing your device. MFD
manufacturers are offering more and more options for connectivity, such as
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi direct, or NFC printing. Of course all of these features are nice,but from a security standpoint, they add to the complexity and risk surface.
Make sure you know the capabilities of your devices, and you know what risks
you’re open to.

Physical Security
The physical location of a printer is also as important as the logical network
location. Printing productivity can be seriously hampered if printers areconstantly exposed to physical damage due to placement in insecure publicareas.
Locating printers in places accessible only by authorized users is a simple way to
reduce the risk of security breaches.
Campus and school locations can be particularly vulnerable, especially whereprinters are accessible by the student population. Additional physical security
measures that may be taken include:••••

Securing the printer to the building, to prevent theft
Disabling the inbound USB port(s), to prevent direct printing over USB, or
direct access to the printer hard drive.
Protecting the network connection. For example, some sites even use
super-glue to secure the network cable in place.
Locking the paper trays

Device AccessModern MFDs and printers can be thought of as Internet of Things (IoT) servers
and are vulnerable to a range of IoT attacks. All modern devices are shipped witha rich set of protocols and services, most of which may never be used by yourorganization. To reduce the surface area of attack, we recommend turning off
any unused device protocols and services.
Ensure default administrator passwords are periodically changed and use secure
passwords for machine settings, such as IP address, to prevent alteration byusers or malicious code on the network. Often, factory default passwords arewell known to hackers, leaving devices highly vulnerable to attack.
Many devices allow print jobs to be stored on an internal hard disk or internal
memory for re-printing. If this feature is used, clear policies are needed toensure that only public documents are stored, or that documents areadequately password protected. In many cases, it may be prudent to disable thisfeature. Alternatively, if you do not want to store jobs for re-use, most MFDs
provide a data overwrite feature. This allows print data to be overwritten or
removed, either immediately, on demand, or at scheduled intervals.
Many modern MFDs have a feature to encrypt all partitions of the hard drive thatmight contain customer data with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
encryption. You should ensure this feature is enabled.
Some MFD manufacturers bundle these features (print job deletion, data
overwrites and data encryption) into Data Security Kits which may be optionallypurchased. If you need these features, you must ensure the appropriate Data
Security Kit is purchased and installed.

Two-Factor Authentication
MFDs and some printers provide for user authentication at the device throughcard swipe, ID number or other methods. This is an important safeguard toprevent unauthorized access to a device.
Two-factor authentication provides an additional layer of security by requestinga user for additional authentication information. PaperCut MF, for example,
provides for a PIN number to be entered as the second factor to authenticate auser after swiping their card or entering their ID number.

FirmwarePrinter manufacturers are becoming increasingly conscious of security and are
actively updating their firmware to address security issues reported against theirdevices. A practice of regularly updating device firmware is needed to ensure
you benefit from any security fixes from the manufacturers.
The cryptographic technology on MFDs varies and sometimes lags behindcurrent best practice. However the industry is becoming more security awareand keeping your MFD firmware up-to-date is important to ensure your MFDs
use the most up-to-date ciphers available for the device.
Older ciphers, such as RC4, are susceptible to security breaches. By default,
PaperCut MF is configured to support a wide variety of SSL ciphers forcompatibility purposes. PaperCut is bundled with a recent version of the Java SE
Runtime Environment, which incorporates the latest security fixes from Oracle.
When PaperCut connects to a device, the two communicate and pick the mostsecure cipher that is mutually supported.

2.4 Print Management Solution Security
Regardless of which product you choose to account for or control your printing(naturally, we recommend PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF), there are someconsiderations and recommendations we would make here as well.
Sensitive information should be secure while being transmitted between theapplication components. Check for protocols such as HTTPS being supported
when accessing administration interfaces and between embedded applications
and servers.
Data that is stored, is also an important consideration. Are you free to use andsecure a database of your choice and manage backups to your organization’s
standards?

PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF were developed from the ground-up withsecurity in mind. With a strong heritage in the education market, the software
has been battle-tested and security-hardened over years of student attacks at
schools and universities around the world.
PaperCut retains a strong security culture, with both proactive and reactive
security practices built into our company’s processes. We regularly review third
party components for security vulnerabilities. All incoming security reports are
immediately reviewed by our PaperCut Security team. Any mitigating or
defensive workarounds are put in place and fixes implemented and publishedtypically within days.
We respectfully recommend you look for strong security credentials with any
print software you introduce into your workflow.
Specific security hardening measures used by PaperCut NG/MF and othersecurity minded solutions include:
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Process isolation — print management software should run in isolated
processes away from the operating system kernel. Processes should
run under the minimum necessary user privileges. For example, it should
not be necessary to run long-running tasks under the root oradministrator user.
Secured APIs — public APIs should have multiple layers of security.
PaperCut uses authentication tokens coupled with IP address filtering toensure that API calls are properly authenticated and are from a trusted
source.
Code signing — your installers and code should be code-signed by thevendor to give assurances that you are running unmodified code that is
authored directly by the vendor.
Sandboxing — when there’s even a small risk that aspects of thesolution could become compromised, we work to engineer the solution
to anticipate the threat and contain any damage. Sandboxing is one
method where VMs, or process-level isolation techniques, are used to
add layers into the system so that a compromise in one area/
component does not open up a whole system.
Secure web pages — web pages should have built-in protections
against SQL injection, Cross-Site forgery and Cross-Site Scripting
attacks.
Directory Services — (such as AD, LDAP, etc) should be leveraged toauthenticate users in preference to storing passwords in the print
management system. If users are defined outside a directory service(e.g. guest printing accounts), the password should be securely
encrypted. PaperCut NG/MF uses Bcrypt for this purpose.
Fail-Closed Design — an important security principle is to shut down
access, such as the network connection from an MFD to theauthentication server, whenever a failure occurs. With a “fail-open•design”, a simple action like removing a network cable, could render adevice open to attack. PaperCut NG/ MF uses a “fail-closed design” as acore design principle in all print security areas.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance—GDPR is amajor upgrade to data privacy regulations in the EU and is making waves
worldwide. GDPR gives control of personal data back to the individual,
and generally improves data privacy with a uniform set of regulations. If
you want to learn more about GDPR, check out our GDPR Compliance
Guide.

Maintaining a Secure Print System
It is important to recognize the business critical nature of your print
infrastructure and apply standard IT best practices to your print systems,
including your print management system. Some examples of best practices
include:••••Regular security audits to ensure vulnerabilities to print exploits have not
crept in.
Regular backups of print management databases.
Maintenance and patching of your print management software.
A tested Disaster Recovery Plan.

3.0 Securing Print Workflows
While your infrastructure may be hardened against
attack, your printing workflows may leave you wide
open. We present a range of secure print workflowsthat are easy to implement and highly effective.

3.1 Print Policy
What are the right print policies for your organization? Should print jobs printed
out of normal business hours be allowed? Should certain users have restricted
printing permissions? Once you have a clear idea of the policies you need to
implement, you can then focus on implementing these policies and businessrules.
North Shore High School would like to allow their students to print somedocuments for free, but only during class time, and only selected documents.
The best way to implement this is for teachers to approve (or deny) all student
printing. Using PaperCut NG/MFs print policies, North Shore High School canenforce the use of a teacher's approval code for all student print jobs.
Implementing business printing policies can take many forms. Printing out key
policies and distributing them prominently across your organization can be auseful exercise, but does not guarantee that all employees and guests will follow
this guidance. An application like PaperCut NG/MF allows an organization to
implement these print policies and business rules automatically, via built-in andcustomizable recipes.

Print Policy Example:
North Shore High School would like to allow their students to print
some documents for free, but only during class time, and only
selected documents. The best way to implement this is forteachers to approve (or deny) all student printing. Using PaperCut
NG/MFs print policies, North Shore High School can enforce theuse of a teacher's approval code for all student print jobs.

3.2 Secure Print Release
In a standard printing environment, print jobs are sent directly to the printer for
immediate printing. A large proportion of these jobs are typically not requiredand end up left on the printer or put in the waste bin. Any jobs not collected
immediately are a security risk, if the documents are sensitive or confidential.
Secure Print Release is a simple solution that places jobs in a holding state until
the user authenticates and releases the job at the printer. Users should be able
to either manually select jobs to release or have jobs automatically print after
successful authentication. Sensitive jobs will then not sit uncollected at theprinter!
Secure Print Release, sometimes also called mailbox printing, is an importantfeature to consider when designing your print workflow. This feature allows theuser who printed the document to release the document only when they arephysically located in front of the MFD or printer. Most MFDs support thisfunctionality. However, to achieve a consistent user experience across yourfleet of devices, a print management solution, such as PaperCut NG or PaperCut
MF, is recommended.
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF also offer Find-Me printing. Find-Me printing
provides a roaming print solution where users print to a single queue. All print
jobs are then “pulled” to the specific printer at which a user identifies herself, e.g.
by swiping an access card.

Print Release Example:
Stephanie White from White & Turner Legal Services has sent a
confidential contract to a printer. After she has sent the document,a colleague stops by for a chat so she cannot get to the printerstraight away. With Secure Print Release, she is not concerned as
she knows the document will not be printed until she releases the
document at the printer.

3.3 Prevent the release of print jobs to a printer in
error
Secure Print Release is an essential capability of a secure printing environment.
But what happens when jobs are released to a printer that is in an error state?

For example, a printer that has a paper jam or is out of toner? What would
happen if the printer error got resolved, and these jobs started printing
automatically in the absence of the authorized user? These jobs should notprint automatically when the printer error is resolved after the user has walked
away.
PaperCut NG/MF offers the ability to prevent the release of jobs when a printeris in error. When the printer error is resolved, the user must then re-release thejob, thus giving control back to the user about when their job prints andeliminating the possibility of sensitive data being leaked.

Printer in Error Example:
Stephanie White from White & Turner Legal Services is now at
the printer and has released her print job. However, while thejob before hers is being printed, the toner runs out. She
contacts her assistant about changing the toner, but doesn't
have time to hang around and wait. After about an hour, shegoes back to the printer to try to re-release her job, but muchto her dismay, the document has already been printed and has
been sitting on the printer since the low toner error wascorrected. A secure print management system can avoid this bypreventing the release of jobs to a printer in error.

3.4 Job Timeout
Print output left sitting in a printer tray is not the only way sensitive print data canbe accessed by someone other than the owner. Spool files stored on the print
server waiting to be released may also be viewed if accessed by malicious
individuals. While the measures outlined in the “Securing the Print Infrastructure”
section can help protect against this, jobs should be automatically removed
from the hold release print queue after an appropriate period of time. This also
allows you to reduce the load on your print server and save paper and toner by
eliminating printing of jobs that are no longer needed.
PaperCut NG/MF allows you to define how long a print job stays in this holdrelease print queue before it is automatically deleted.

3.5 Accountability to the User
There is nothing like knowing that what you print can be tracked and audited toprevent people from printing their favorite thesis on whether Captain Kirk or
Captain Picard is the better captain in Star Trek, including all 55 full color pagesof the Starship Enterprise schematics!
While this capability is available through operating system audits (e.g. Windows
event viewer), it can be a manual, time-consuming and error-prone process.
PaperCut NG/MF allows you to centrally manage this process for all devices andusers.
PaperCut NG/MF allows you to share some or all of a user’s printing history withthem in several ways. You can simply share their print history with them or you
can quota their printing ability and have them initiate a request and justification
for more printing once they hit their limit.

3.6 Print Privacy
Gossips are relentless. The last thing you want is to have weeks of secretive
work all undone because the document titled “Surprise Employee
Bonuses.docx” is seen sitting in a print queue, waiting to be printed! Where
possible, you should hide your sensitive data.
While you could solve this via a complex LPD/LPR setup, Papercut NG/MF allows
you to hide the document names either at an individual print queue level oracross your entire print server. Your employee surprise bonuses will remain asurprise now!

4.0 Securing Printed Output
Keeping information secure is never easy, but it gets awhole lot harder once in printed form! All's not lost,
however, as there are several technologies and bestpractices available that can significantly improve thetraceability and security of printed documents andprevent document theft.
As users are in control of printed documents, security measures for printed
documents must effectively drive user behavior. For example, a policy
document sitting in a drawer is unlikely to prevent a private medical record being
left behind in the hospital cafe. But if the medical record contained a prominent
digital signature that could easily trace the document owner, more care would
be taken by that person before printing the material and abandoning it at a public
place.
Document security best practice is to use a range of complementary measures,
which include:•••

Audit trails and reports of printing activity
Watermarking and digital signatures
Electronic archiving of printed documents

4.1 Audit Trails and Reports of Printing Activity
A secured print system should keep a comprehensive record of all user print
jobs. This should include information identifying the user who printed the
document, the document name, the computer used to generate the print job,
the output device, and the date and time of printing.
The existence of this audit trail enhances accountability and traceability, andencourages users to act with integrity.
PaperCut NG/MF retains detailed information in logs and archives. In addition,
PaperCut NG/MF offers a wide range of audit reports detailing all transactions
that have occurred in the system

System Activity
PaperCut retains detailed system level information in the following logs:••

Audit logs — all operations against user accounts are recorded in anaudit log. These audit records capture the date, details, and the user
who performed the operation.
Application log — PaperCut NG/MF retains a complete history ofsystem events including, errors, notifications, alerts, new printers ordevices, etc.

User Activity
At the user level, PaperCut NG/MF provides the following logs to track user
activity:••

Job log — a log of all the print, copy, fax, and scan jobs, capturing
information about the user, date, and details for each job.
Transaction log — a record of all the financial transactions, including
print job charges and account balance transactions.

Reporting
Regular, scheduled reports can be used to alert administrators of unusual
printing behavior or contravene an organization’s printing policies.
PaperCut NG/MF offers a wide range of comprehensive reports that can begenerated on demand or automatically emailed to management on a daily,
weekly or monthly schedule.

4.2 Watermarking and Digital Signatures
Watermarking is a technology that augments a printed page with text added at
the time of print. A watermark may contain information such as the user who
printed the document, the date on which it was printed, and the printer used. In
this way, watermarking can act as a reminder to users that the source of adocument can be identified and traced back to them.

A digital signature is a digital code uniquely generated by taking various print job
attributes, such as print time, username, printer name, and document name, andcombining them with a secret key. A digital signature applied to a printed

document as a watermark can be used
to quickly trace a printed document back to a specific entry in the print audit log.
Best practice printed document security combines these three features —watermarking, digital signatures, and a comprehensive print log — to provide fulltraceability and security of printed documents.
PaperCut NG/MF enhances document security by providing all three features,
working in tandem — watermarking, digital signatures, and a comprehensive
print log searchable by digital signature.

Watermarking Example:
Damien Turner from White & Turner Legal Services has beenworking on a high profile divorce case, but much to his horror,
has discovered that details of the proposed settlement havebeen leaked to the press. The magazine in question has
provided the source document and because White & Turner
Legal Services use PaperCut's digital signature watermarking
functionality, which automatically prints a secret key on all
documents, Damien is able to identify when and where thedocument was printed and more importantly, who was
responsible.

4.3 Electronic archiving of printed documents
Observing document retention requirements, e.g. HIPAA compliance, is a hugeburden on many companies. Maintaining printed archives is both expensive andtime-consuming. Automatic electronic archiving of all printed documents is an
attractive solution.

The ability to electronically archive printed documents also adds another layer ofprint output security. With electronic archiving, the print log is augmented by animage of the printed document, allowing for complete traceability. For example,
an archive can positively identify who printed an incriminating or offensive
document, since the print logs includes the contents of the print output.
PaperCut NG/MF’s Print Archiving empowers approved administrators tobrowse and review the content of print activity within their environment.
Alongside the powerful tracking and reporting functionality built into PaperCut
NG/MF, this gives system administrators a wide range of auditing capabilities,
such as:Storing historic records of all printed content.
••••

Viewing past print jobs in a web browser.
Having fined-grained access control to archived content.
Downloading the original spool file for reprinting with 100% fidelity.
Enabling or disabling archiving for selected printers and users.

Archiving Example:
When Stephanie was at the printer, she noticed another printout of a rather offensive image, but had no idea who had printed
it. With electronic archiving, the System Administrator can trackdown the culprit. The SysAdmin can view an image of every print
job to identify the one in question, and once the job is identified,can see who was responsible for printing offensive material in
the workplace.

5.0 Summary
Practical and proven methods are available to secure
your print system. We recommend a multi-layered
security strategy that addresses vulnerabilities before,
during, and after each document is printed.
Securing your print infrastructure, through defensive network configuration,
secure print queues and protecting device access will help ensure you have arobust print system even before the first job is printed.
Securing your print workflows through print policy, secure print release, andmanaging jobs released to a printer in error, are effective and widely used tools
with the out-of-box solutions readily available.
Securing your print output using a combination of print audit logs, watermarking
with digital signatures and electronic archiving, will help drive correct user
behavior and force accountability for printed documents.
A comprehensive print management solution, such as PaperCut NG andPaperCut MF will help organizations implement many of these best practices in a
cost-effective way to achieve a secure print system. Of course, the print
management software must have its own strong security credentials.
Additional up-to-date information may be obtained from PaperCut’s web site at:
http://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/Security
Please contact PaperCut support or your local PaperCut reseller if you havespecific questions not addressed by this white paper or the online
documentation.

Print Security Checklist
Use this checklist to assess the health of your print system security:

1. Securing Print Infrastructure

2. Securing Print Workflows

Is there secure network communication
between the end user and the MFD?

Can anyone (even a visitor) walk up to your
MFDs and copy, scan, or fax any document?

Have you separated the print server from the
network to protect traffic from interception?

Can they scan any document to a folder,email, or fax?

Are you monitoring and investigating any
packet sniffing or port scanning behavior on
the network?

Are printed jobs left unattended in the output
trays of printers and copiers?

What happens to your print data during
network outages?

Can users bypass the system and print directlyfrom a print server or a local queue on their
computer to the IP address of a printer?

Are you hiding document names in yourprint queues?
Have you disabled the USB ports on MFDs
to prevent someone from scanning toUSB devices?
Has all unused MFD functionality been disabled?

How are you encouraging and enforcing yourprint policies?
Are you enforcing a secure print release policy?
Have you enabled print job timeout for older
documents on your print server?

Have you applied all patch updates and do you
have a security patch update procedure thattackles the latest vulnerabilities as they happen?
Is there any sensitive network information
stored in your MFDs? Are device passwords(such as the admin password) updated
and secure?
What happens to your devices at the end of
their life? Does the hard drive and internal
memory of every printer get erased andsecurely disposed of at the end of its life?
Are you adhering to industry standards, suchas specifications established by the US
Department of Defense (DoD)?
Has your organization invested in any Data
Loss Prevention (DLP) technology? If yes, howis this complemented or compromised by yourprint security?
Are the same print security settings employedconsistently across all devices from desktop
PCs, to tablets and smartphones?
Are your MFDs secured or located in a position
where CCTV cameras or people can view themso that malicious activity can be both detected
and deterred?

3. Securing Printed Output
Do you maintain an audit trail of print, copy, scan,and fax activity? That is: who, what, when, where,
and how?
When archiving documents, are you using a fileformat that allows for long-term preservation?
Do you use watermark technology to helpclassify sensitive documents and highlight what
is vulnerable? Do you use digital signatures to
identify who printed a document?
Have all end users been adequately trained,
not only in how to use a print system, but also
on what your organization’s print policies are,and the impacts of policy breaches toyour organization?

Thank you
Authors:
Chris Dance (CEO, PaperCut Software)
Geoff Smith (Head of Development, PaperCut Software)
Anthony Nicola (Head of Support, PaperCut Software)
Damien White (Global Technical Services Manager, PaperCut Software)Contributors:
Mark Hart (ACDI – Director of Business Development / National Accounts)

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