Is Your Print Environment a Network Security Risk? How to Go from “Not Sure” to “Under Control”

Here is a question that most IT conversations skip right over: when did someone on your team last review the security configuration on your office printers?

Not your servers. Not your endpoints. Not your email filters. Your printers.

If the honest answer is “I’m not sure” or “I don’t think we ever have”, you are not alone. Print devices are consistently the most overlooked attack surface on a business network. They sit in the corner, they work most of the time, and nobody thinks of them as a security problem until something goes wrong.

The problem is that something going wrong with a printer is not a minor inconvenience. It is a network security event, and one of the biggest gaps in print security for businesses. Without proper secure print solutions in place, these devices can expose sensitive data, create compliance risks, and provide an entry point for attackers into your broader network.

What Is Print Security?

Print security refers to the protection of printers, print data, and document workflows from unauthorized access, data leaks, and cyber threats. A secure print environment ensures that devices, users, and documents are monitored, encrypted, and controlled across the network.

What Makes a Printer a Security Risk?

Modern printers are not the simple output devices they used to be. They run operating systems. They have processors, storage, and memory. They connect to your network, your cloud storage, your email system, and in many environments, directly to your document management platforms. That connectivity is what makes them useful. It is also what makes them a target.

Without proper secure print configuration, printers become one of the most vulnerable devices on your network. For example, when a printer is left in its default configuration, which is how most business printers are deployed, several things are typically true:

Default credentials are still active. Most printers ship with a default administrator username and password. In environments where nobody has changed them, those credentials are public knowledge. Any attacker who reaches the device on your network can access its administrative interface.
Print jobs may not be encrypted. When a document travels from a laptop to a printer over your network, it is often transmitted in clear text. Anyone monitoring network traffic can capture and read those documents.
Documents are stored in device memory. Many printers cache recent print jobs in internal memory or on a hard drive. Depending on the device, those images may persist until the drive is wiped, which, in most environments, means they are there until the device is retired or disposed of.
Firmware may not have been updated. Printer firmware updates patch known vulnerabilities, just like updates for any other networked device. In most businesses, printer firmware is never updated after the initial installation.
The device is on your network with minimal monitoring. Endpoint detection tools typically do not cover printers. If an attacker uses a printer as a foothold to move laterally across your network, there may be nothing alerting your team that it is happening.

Without a structured approach to print security services, issues like default credentials, unencrypted print jobs, and outdated firmware remain unaddressed across the environment.

None of those issues require a sophisticated attacker to exploit. They require access to your network, and in some cases, nothing more than an internet connection and a search for publicly documented default credentials.

The Document Scanning Problem Is Bigger Than You Think

The security conversation around print usually focuses on output, meaning documents coming out of the printer. But for most modern businesses, document scanning is a critical component of secure print solutions - yet it is often overlooked.

Think about what your team scans on a daily basis. Contracts. HR documents. Financial records. Client data. Insurance forms. In healthcare environments, patient records. In most offices, those documents are scanned and sent somewhere: an email inbox, a shared folder, a document management system, using whatever default workflow was configured when the device was installed. The question worth asking is: how well is that workflow actually secured?

In a properly designed print workflow environment, documents are routed securely, access is controlled, and every action is logged for visibility and compliance.

A well-designed document scanning and capture environment does several things that an out-of-the-box printer setup typically does not, including:

Authenticating the user before allowing a scan to proceed.
Routing documents to the correct destination based on document type and the user’s role.
Logging every scan event with a timestamp, a user identity, and a destination, which means you have an audit trail if something is ever questioned.

For businesses subject to HIPAA, PCI DSS, or state data privacy regulations, that audit trail is not optional. Regulators increasingly expect documented evidence that your document capture environment is controlled and monitored. “We have a printer and it scans to email” does not meet that standard, and it is not the answer an auditor is looking for.

The good news is that getting your scan-to-workflow environment right does not require replacing your hardware. In most cases it requires a proper configuration of what you already have, integrated with the document workflows your team uses every day. That is a different kind of conversation than buying new equipment, and often a more valuable one.

The Security and Compliance Gap

Most of the print security issues described above, like default credentials, unencrypted transmission, unchecked firmware, and unmonitored devices, are not hardware problems. They are management problems. They exist because nobody has a consistent, systematic way to monitor and maintain the print environment across the organization.

In most businesses, the IT team handles printers reactively. A device goes down, someone submits a ticket, and a technician shows up. Between incidents, the devices sit on the network without anyone watching them. That is a reasonable approach for a coffee maker. It is not a reasonable approach for a networked device that processes sensitive documents and connects to your file storage and email infrastructure.

There should be centralized monitoring, standardized configurations, and ongoing management across the entire print fleet. Instead of treating printers as isolated devices, they become part of a controlled, visible, and actively managed environment.

The businesses that handle this well share a few things in common:

They know exactly what devices are on their network and what firmware version each one is running.
They have centralized monitoring that flags anomalies (such as unexpected access attempts, unusual data transfer volumes, or devices connecting to unfamiliar destinations).
They have documented security configurations for each device class, and those configurations are applied consistently when a new device is added, or an old one is replaced.

That level of visibility is not difficult to achieve. But it does require treating the print fleet as a managed environment rather than a collection of individual devices that are somebody else’s problem to deal with when they break.

What a Device Security Program Actually Looks Like

Starting June 5, Visual Edge IT is introducing Certified Secure: the company’s standardized device security program ensuring every multi-function device (MFD) installed, configured, and hardened to an approved security standard.

Organizations that complete the process receive a Certified Secure designation and badge: visible proof that their print environment meets Visual Edge IT’s configuration best practices.

Security Settings Included in Visual Edge IT Certified Secure

Disable unnecessary network protocols (e.g., FTP, Telnet, SNMP v1/v2)
Enable secure protocols only (HTTPS, SNMPv3, secure FTP)
Change default administrator passwords to strong, unique passwords
Disable guest and default user accounts
Enable firmware/software auto-updates or establish regular update schedule
Configure network access controls (IP filtering, MAC address filtering)
Enable encrypted communication (SSL/TLS) for web interface and data transmission
Disable unused physical ports (USB, parallel ports) if not needed
Enable audit logging and configure log retention
Set up authentication requirements for all print jobs
Disable unnecessary services (web services, cloud connectivity if not needed)
Configure hard drive encryption if device has internal storage
Enable secure erase for stored print jobs
Set up network segmentation (VLAN) for printer traffic
Document all security configurations and maintain configuration baseline
Apply EdgePrint Certified Secure badge with hardening date

Certified Secure gives customers a clear, low-friction path to stronger print security, and gives Visual Edge IT a repeatable framework to lead security conversations, expand managed services, and separate every device deployment from the competition.

By making hardening the default, Visual Edge IT makes security an expectation, not an upgrade.

Visual Edge IT is the only printer and copier dealer that ensures every imaging device that leaves our warehouse meets our certified security standard - giving sales a defensible, visible differentiator in every competitive conversation.

Where to Start

If you are reading this and realizing your print environment has not been reviewed in a while or ever, the starting point is simpler than you might expect.

A print security review covers the basics: what devices are on your network, what their current firmware versions are, whether default credentials have been changed, how print jobs are transmitted and stored, and whether your scan-to-workflow configuration actually controls where documents go and who can send them there.

Most of those questions can be answered in a single site assessment. The findings typically fall into three buckets: things that are fine, things that need a configuration change, and things that need a bigger conversation about whether the device still belongs in your environment at all.

You do not need new hardware to address most print security issues. You need visibility into what you have, a clear standard for how devices should be configured, and someone responsible for making sure that standard is maintained over time. That is what a managed print environment provides, and it is a conversation worth having before a security audit, an insurance renewal, or an incident forces it.

Not sure where your print fleet stands?

Visual Edge IT offers a complimentary print security assessment: a clear picture of what your fleet looks like, what is configured correctly, what is not, and what to do about it. No pressure. No obligation. Just clarity. Understand your print security risks and get a clear plan to secure your print environment. With Certified Secure, you get a clear, low-friction path to stronger print security.