Cybersecurity is understandably a hot topic in 2025, as cyber threats continue to increase with technology advancing at a rapid pace. As you consider your organization’s cybersecurity, are you including print security in that conversation? Although printers are often overlooked when it comes to security, these devices are an integral part of your network infrastructure, and leaving them unsecured and vulnerable can have devastating consequences.
In this article, we’ll cover what makes print security unignorable in 2025 and why print security should be a top priority at your business.
Why Prioritize Print Security in 2025?
Print security has always been important, but why is it more crucial than ever in 2025? Various factors contribute to the prioritization of print security. Learn why your business needs to secure its print infrastructure below.
Rising Cyber Incidents
Cyber incidents like phishing attacks, ransomware, and data breaches continue to increase. These cyber risks create serious issues for organizations of all sizes, and unsecured print devices serve as common entry points for hackers looking to gain access to your business’s data. Preventing cyber attacks at your organization means securing your network and your entire infrastructure, and printers are an important aspect of this infrastructure.
Often-Forgotten Vulnerabilities
Although many people falsely believe cybersecurity only revolves around computers, the truth is that every device on your network plays a pivotal role in your organization’s overall security. Overlooking print security can be a detrimental error that can lead to cyber attacks and data breaches. Taking a comprehensive approach to your business’s cybersecurity is the most effective way to reduce risks.
Financial (and Reputational) Losses
When businesses fall victim to cyber attacks, they lose more than data. In many cases, businesses take significant financial hits as they pay ransoms, work to remediate issues caused by the attacks, and pay legal fees or fines. In addition to these costs, many companies also suffer from loss of trust and reputational damage. For some businesses, these incidents even put them out of business.
How to Secure Your Print Infrastructure
Knowing the risks involved with an insecure print network, the need for robust security measures is clear. What should your business do in 2025 to secure your printers and prevent cyberattacks? The following steps can effectively mitigate risks within your print infrastructure.
1. Keep Print Fleet Up to Date
One of the simplest ways to keep your printers secure is to regularly update the firmware and software. These updates exist for a reason, and that reason is often to patch any vulnerabilities within your devices. Enabling automatic updates is an easy, effective way to stay on top of these patches.
Staying up-to-date also means using current models with the necessary security features. Although printers can provide top-tier solutions for many years when properly taken care of, upgrading to a more recent model when needed is important. Managed print services can make this process easier and more financially feasible by offering leasing options that allow your business to upgrade models as needed.
2. Monitor Print Activity
Monitoring print activity and auditing regularly allows your organization to recognize any suspicious behaviors more efficiently. These security measures deliver valuable information about who printed and accessed documents and can even raise flags about high-volume printing without authorization. Keeping track of print activity may not seem like a noteworthy tactic, but it provides valuable insights into your organization’s print infrastructure and ensures any suspicious behavior is investigated.
3. Encrypt Data in Transit and at Rest
Encrypting your business’s print data both in transit and at rest can help you stay secure. What does this mean? In the simplest terms, encryption in transit encrypts the data between the computer and the printer, and encryption at rest encrypts the data stored in the printer. Without these security measures, bad actors can intercept and access unauthorized data, resulting in breaches.
4. Implement Role-Based Access Controls
Limiting who can access your print data and print jobs can greatly reduce security issues. Role-based access controls (RBAC) allow businesses to set permissions according to user roles, limiting data access only to those who need it. Another effective feature to implement on your business’s printers is secure print release, which requires users to authenticate their identities before the print job is completed. This ensures only the person who created the print job can retrieve the physical copy.
5. Educate Your Employees
Last but not least, keep your employees informed and educated about print security. Your business, no matter how big or small, should implement training to inform your employees about best practices in cybersecurity, and this should also include printing. Helping your workforce to understand how to responsibly navigate printing and why these measures are important can go a long way in keeping your data safe.
Take Control of Your Business’s Print Security
Don’t let print security fall by the wayside at your business. Taking a proactive approach to securing your organization’s print infrastructure leads to reduced risk of cyber incidents, ultimately protecting your data, finances, and reputation and making print security a worthy investment.
Need help keeping your print fleet secure? GoodSuite provides Woodland Hills managed print services (MPS) to enhance your security, streamline operations, cut costs, and boost productivity. Our team of print and IT experts throughout Southern California will work with your organization to customize our solutions to meet your specific needs. With GoodSuite’s trusted solutions, you can free up your resources while enjoying peace of mind knowing your print infrastructure is secure and optimized.
Request an assessment online to take your first step toward MPS with GoodSuite or call us today to learn more about our products and services.
