Office printing remains “major security concern”

February 19, 2019

Ringdale, the provider of FollowMe, a management solution for document security and compliance, has announced the results of new research in a report titled “Global Print Security Landscape, 2019” from Quocirca.

It is evident from the report findings that businesses are justified in their concerns about their print infrastructure vulnerability with 59 percent reporting they had suffered a print-related data breach in the past 12 months. It is estimated that these print-related data breaches cost, on average, £313,000 ($404,364/€357,673) per year. However, it is not just the direct financial cost that is an issue, as business managers cite a loss of productivity and loss of customer trust and confidence as being of equal concern.

While organisations appear to recognise the print-related risk with 66 percent ranking this area as a major concern, the report indicates that many businesses are still leaving themselves exposed to potential data breaches. The report shows only 51 percent have a formal print security policy in place and 52 percent admit to not applying regular firmware updates to their printers. In addition, when it comes to pull printing and secure mobile printing solutions the adoption rates are 40 percent and 37 percent respectively.

Other key findings include:

Print related data breaches account for 11 percent of all breaches with an average of 9 specific print related breaches taking place each year
Concerns regarding security and data leaks are highest in Retail, Public Sector and Finance
Three-quarters of those surveyed said they are increasing print security spending

“Physical documents continue to be an important part of daily office life with 91 percent of organisations rating document printing as important to their business. For organisations with a heavy reliance on paper processes, there are justifiable concerns regarding the security of their print infrastructure and how resistant it is to internal or external threats. Securing the print infrastructure to help prevent data loss and achieve industry compliance is a top priority for Ringdale and we are committed to the continued development of customer centric solutions that deliver secure FollowMe Printing in a multi-vendor printing environments,” said Jan Bollmann, Executive Vice President, Ringdale.

The Quocirca Global Print Security Landscape, 2019 report is available here.