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While there is little consensus when it comes to putting an exact price tag on security breaches, one thing is certain: organisations are paying a steep price – sometimes in the millions.

Even worse, the fix is proving to be just as costly as the problem. According to Forrester Research, this year most firms planned to spend between 7.5 to 9.0 percent of their IT budgets on security, regardless of their size, geography, and industry. It’s a sizeable investment, especially when you consider that analysts expect IT spending on the whole to rise no more than 6 percent.

Even as organisations are willing to go to great lengths to protect valuable business information, many fail to realise that these efforts can be easily nullified during the simple act of printing over a network. Because today’s printing and imaging technology is networked and provides much the same functionality of a computer or server, it is being increasingly targeted for attack.

In light of the volume of sensitive information that typically flows through the printing and imaging environment, it is vitally important to identify these potential risks. Here are just three of the many that organisations should be concerned about, plus a look at ways to stay secure.

HP has made security an integral component of its imaging and printing devices and solutions as evidenced by the large number of security settings built into these devices and solutions. To ensure out-of-the-box, plug-and-play availability, however, HP printing and imaging devices are shipped with open security settings. Although HP highly recommends that organisations subsequently configure these settings based on their unique IT environments and security, many neglect to take this step.

HP Web Jetadmin is a simple printing and imaging peripheral management software tool, which can be used to enable these safeguards in multiple HP devices simultaneously. In addition, HP Web Jetadmin protects your network-connected peripherals with advanced security features, including Microsoft .NET platform technologies.

Many organisations are turning to print authentication as a cost-effective and relatively non-disruptive means of preventing unauthorised users from gaining access to sensitive data. HP provides authentication solutions that can be used to:

• Control access to multifunction printer (MFP) functionality
  With HP partner Capella Technologies’ subscription-based authentication solution, MIPA PIN, print jobs are saved electronically until the authorised user is ready to print them. The user then provides a PIN code, or uses an authentication method supported for other HP MFP walk-up operations, to release the print job.
• Secure mobile printing within an organisation’s Intranet
  Developed by HP partner Jetmobile and available for almost the full range of HP devices, SecureJet enables users to designate document recipient and handling criteria. The print job is retained on the printer hard disk until the appointed recipient reclaims it by authenticating directly on the device.

Because most paper-based workflows are manual, they are by nature inefficient, expensive and risky. Transforming paper-based processes into streamlined digital workflows enables business documents to be quickly, easily and securely stored, retrieved, delivered and managed electronically from the desktop.

HP Smart Printing Services help organisations increase document-workflow effectiveness, thereby reducing the cost and complexity of paper-based workflow and addressing regulatory requirements for data accuracy. As a result, organisations achieve significant reductions in the time, manpower, and space it takes to capture, process, route and store large volumes of data.

Want to learn more about printing and imaging security for your business? Download the whitepaper Solutions for secure document sending and printing.