Photocopier Security

Why is photocopier security an issue?

Have you thought about the different documents that may be photocopied on a day to day basis within your company? (Many of which will likely contain sensitive information, such as financial or personal details). You may be thinking why is this an issue, but then what if I told you your photocopier may store a copy of everything its ever scanned on its hard drive and that, with the right know how, this data can be accessed through the internet.

Along with the photocopied documents, your photocopier may also store the user credentials of your staff, which may include usernames and passwords. This can then lead to network insecurity if the same usernames and passwords are used throughout your system.Example – Doom

Michael Jordon, a security researcher, has undertaken a project to run the video game Doom on a Canon Pixma printer in order to show that these security issues exist.

He was able to hack into the Canon printer by using the web interface, which had no username or password. He was then able to load the game, after months of adjustments, onto the printer. This shows that the data on the printer can easily be taken and manipulated.

Canon have stated that they will be adding a username and password to the web interface in response to this.

The full article is available on the BBC website.How you can make your photocopier more secure.

With regards to security you should be aware of the following ways in which your multifunction devices can be accessed:

Physical Access: Who has access to your devices? Employees, customers and service technicians (and potentially imposters) could have physical access to your devices and could therefore have access to your data.
Network Access: most multifunction devices use propriety operating systems which should make them fairly immune to exploitation, but you may want to check for any network access issues which may be known with the brand of device you are using.
Web-based configuration: Most multifunction devices have a web interface for configuration which can be used to access the photocopiers hard drive.

User authentication can be added to your devices in order to give extra security to users physically accessing your devices by restricting access to your devices to only existing users. Authentication kits available include finger vein scanners and card scanners.

Actions to reduce the ease in which your wireless/internet based devices can be hacked and sensitive information taken include:

Change the log in details of your devices from the manufactures default
Use alphanumeric passwords which contain a combination of upper and lower case characters
Change your password on a regular basis
Don’t use obvious passwords such key dates or “password”
Don’t keep a record of the passwords you use

Taking these simple steps will reduce the chance of your multifunction devices being hacked which, with information such as user credentials, could be used as a gateway to other devices or your network being hacked.

There are also ways in which you can make your data more secure if a hacker does get access to your photocopier, such as security kits, which are usually available for multifunction devices as an optional extra, adding extra security to your devices through services such as:

Encrypting all your data prior to it being stored in DRAM
Encrypting all data which is stored on the hard drive
Clearing the DRAM after each copy, scan or print use
Running without user initiation
Makes deleted data irretrievable with overwriting routines

There are more ways to ensure that your multifunction devices remain secure, such as specific print management software which can add another level of security to your device and ensure that important documents can only be retrieved by the sender.

Kevin Kern, Senior VP of Marketing for Konica Minolta, Develops parent company stated: “Our MFPs can ensure documents that are copied, scanned, faxed or otherwise transmitted do not remain stored on the hard drive or in DRAM memory as a standard feature.”

To learn more about photocopier security, or if you simply have any queries, feel free to contact a helpful member of the Copier Systems support team on 01226 321 181.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29203776