1. Secure Location
Don’t allow the general public to access your office equipment. Hide printers and copiers behind counters or place them in specific rooms that only authorized staff can enter.
If your business handles highly sensitive documents, it is a good idea to invest in stronger security measures. When your office empties at night and over the weekend, security guards and cameras will help prevent security breaches.
2. Authorize Users
Another way to strengthen copier and printer security is to restrict access by requiring employees to enter a username and PIN or password. Employees should never share their login information with anyone, even other employees.
To further prevent unauthorized access, you should also enable the “automatic logout” security feature on all printers and copiers. With this feature, the machines will automatically require authorization for the next use, just in case an employee forgets to log out.
3. Monitor and Verify Use
Enhance printer and copier security by tracking who uses them, how much they print, and when. Monitoring office machines deters employees from personal use and secures access to sensitive documents. Performing regular audits will allow you to verify user activity and catch any unauthorized access.
4. Encrypt Your Data
Data that passes through printers and copiers is vulnerable to a breach. Protecting data while storing or transmitting information requires encryption. Data encryption encodes information into unreadable text so that only users with the decryption key can read it. Sending information to a device that applies end-to-end encryption will protect your data during the transfer and after delivery.
5. Protect the Hard Drive
Printers, copiers, and other office machines store documents in a hard drive in order to print, copy, scan, or fax them. You can protect hard drives with encryption and by keeping the machines in a secure location. If you need to replace, relocate, or remove a machine for any reason, you should always wipe the hard drive clean.
6. Fortify Wireless Security
Poor wireless security can put your office copier and printer at risk. Protect sensitive data stored on your office machines with a strong password. To come up with a strong password, randomize a combination of both upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. Change the password frequently for ideal wireless security.
