Corporate printers need protection from cyber attacks

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Sergey Stelmakh | 10/16/2019
Protecting corporate printers has become a major issue in cybersecurity, requiring businesses to rethink their infrastructure protection strategy, Techopedia reports.

Long considered the primary threat to come from offices, which are targets for cyberattacks, printers have not attracted much attention from information security teams, which are always more concerned with corporate databases that store the sensitive personal data of executives and customers. Businesses may need to rethink their security strategies as Internet of Things (IoT)-connected printers increasingly expose their vulnerabilities to hackers.

How hackers steal documents
A 2019 study by Quocirc found that print hong kong whatsapp data was one of the top five business challenges. It was the second-highest (66% of respondents) after public cloud (69%), with some industries including professional services, financial services and retail citing it as a top issue. The danger lies in the point where sensitive documents are sent to the printer to be converted into paper copies. Hackers are using remote attacks to intercept electronic versions of documents as they queue up for printing. They silently pause the printing, copy them and then resume it. These actions do not raise suspicion, the study says.

The Nature of Threats to Enterprise Printers
Researchers at security consultancy NCC Group have identified several zero-day vulnerabilities in corporate printers that hackers are “sealing” to launch attacks that have no signature, meaning they leave no trace, allowing them to penetrate intrusion detection systems and other defense mechanisms. “To reduce the risk of vulnerabilities in corporate printers, it is necessary to improve software security throughout the entire development life cycle,” NCC Group experts believe.

According to them, developers are increasingly reusing previously written software components without necessarily checking their security, and this code can contain many vulnerabilities. To enter a corporate network, hackers introduce their software, which, by overflowing the buffer or temporary memory (when the traffic flow exceeds its capacity), damages the permanent memory or RAM. "Once the attacker gains full control over the printer, he will be able to penetrate the company's internal networks and steal any confidential document sent to the printer," the experts note.