August 11, 2021. My article “What Should I Pay Attention to When Looking for a Secure Printing Solution?” was published on IT Channel News.
The subtitle says it all: on confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility. Three words that sound abstract until you realize your company’s sensitive data passes through a printer every single day — and most businesses treat that printer as the least of their security concerns.
COVID-19 didn’t create this problem. It just made it impossible to ignore.
Before the pandemic, corporate mobility and digital document workflows were already growing fast. Then overnight, hundreds of thousands of employees moved to home offices, accessing shared corporate databases through home Wi-Fi networks that companies had virtually no control over. The number of potential security breach points didn’t grow linearly — it exploded.
The World Economic Forum’s COVID-19 risk review named cyberattacks and data fraud among the most likely technology risks triggered by the pandemic. And a 2019–2020 IDC report, published before any of this began, already warned that perimeter-based network security was “breaking down” — and that every device connected to the network, including printers and MFPs, now represented an endpoint security threat.
Most companies still don’t think of their printer that way. That’s the gap I wanted to close with this article.
So what actually makes a print solution secure? In my view, it comes down to three non-negotiable principles:
Confidentiality — only authorized users can view, download, print, or edit data. As more devices access shared networks on the go, companies need a fast, practical way to manage access permissions and track who used what device and when.
Integrity — information must be accurate and trustworthy. Documents in transit need to be protected from unauthorized modification by malicious third parties. A tampered document that looks legitimate is often more dangerous than one that never arrives.
Accessibility — authorized users must always be able to access the content they need, without compromising the first two principles. Security that locks everyone out isn’t security — it’s just a different kind of failure.
These three principles form the foundation of any serious cybersecurity strategy. And they apply just as much to document management and printing as they do to networks and servers.
The conclusion I drew then holds completely today: the right answer isn’t a universal one-size-fits-all solution. Companies need a trusted partner who can build a security approach tailored to their specific environment, scale, and risk profile. The goal is to find the right balance between mobility and protection — so that flexibility becomes an asset, not a liability.