Your Printers are Endpoints. So, Why is Nobody Worried About Endpoint Protection? 

Walk through the security posture of a typical mid-size organization. Laptops are managed, encrypted, and enrolled in mobile device management protocols. Servers sit behind access controls and monitoring tools. Firewalls are updated. Security awareness training happens quarterly. And then there is the printer in the corner of the office, running on the same factory default settings it had when it was unboxed three years ago, connected to the same network as everything else. 

This is not a hypothetical. It is the actual state of print security in most organizations.  Multifunction printers are endpoints in every meaningful sense of the word. They connect to internal networks, process sensitive documents, store data in memory and on hard drives, and often have web interfaces, FTP capabilities, and email functionality built in. Yet they are almost never included in standard endpoint protection security programs. 

The reasons are understandable. Print devices feel like appliances. They are managed by facilities or operations rather than IT. Nobody thinks of a copier as a server. But the people writing malware do not care about organizational silos. 

What Actually Ships on a Default-Configuration Printer 

Understanding the print security problem starts with understanding what a default-configured multifunction device actually looks like. Most printers and copiers ship with a web-based management interface enabled and accessible on the network. Default administrator credentials are often set to well-known values that are documented in publicly available product manuals. Network protocols that create security risk, including legacy versions of protocols that should have been disabled years ago, may be active by default. 

Hard drives, where present, store document data that is not automatically wiped between jobs. Access controls may not be configured, meaning anyone who can reach the device on the network can potentially access its interface. Email and FTP features that are rarely used by the organization are nonetheless enabled and theoretically accessible. 

None of this requires a sophisticated attacker to exploit. The barriers to entry for a basic printer compromise are low precisely because the bar for securing printers has historically been so low. Default configurations are well-documented, widely known, and rarely changed. 

Why Print Security Gets Skipped 

There is no single reason organizations neglect printer security. There are several, and they compound each other. 

Organizational ownership is unclear. In many organizations, print devices are procured through a vendor relationship managed by operations or facilities, not IT. The people responsible for device deployment may not have security expertise, and IT may not consider printers within their endpoint security remit. 

Security tools do not cover them. Most endpoint detection and response platforms, asset management tools, and security scanners are designed for traditional computing devices. Multifunction devices often fall outside the scope of these tools, creating a gap that is visible only when someone specifically looks for it. 

Nothing bad has happened yet. This is the most dangerous reason of all. Organizations that have not experienced a print-related security incident tend to treat the absence of incidents as evidence that print devices are not a meaningful risk. This is the same logic that has preceded most major security failures across industries. 

“Most breaches don’t announce themselves. They slip in through devices that aren’t being monitored.” 

Hardening feels complex. IT teams that do recognize the risk often deprioritize it because device hardening requires knowledge of device-specific settings, protocols, and configuration options that vary by manufacturer and model. Without a standardized process, or device hardening checklist, it becomes a project rather than a practice. 

What Proper Print Device Hardening Looks Like 

Device hardening is not a single action. It is a set of configuration changes applied systematically at the time of deployment to reduce the attack surface of the device before it ever connects to the production network. A thorough hardening process addresses several categories of settings for secure printing. 

The challenge is not the technical complexity of any individual setting. Most of these changes are straightforward once a technician knows what to look for. The challenge is consistency, ensuring that every device, across every deployment, at every location, receives the same treatment. Without a documented, repeatable checklist, hardening is ad hoc at best. 

The Compliance and Cyber Insurance Dimension 

For organizations in regulated industries such as healthcare, legal, financial services, education, and government, print security is increasingly becoming a requirement. Regulatory frameworks that address endpoint protection do not make exceptions for multifunction printers. If a device processes or stores sensitive information, it falls within scope. 

The cyber insurance dimension is equally important and less frequently discussed. Carriers are paying closer attention to endpoint security as they price policies and evaluate applications. Organizations that cannot demonstrate a documented, consistent approach to device security across their environment are increasingly facing higher premiums or declined coverage. Print devices are endpoints. If they cannot be accounted for in a security posture review, that gap is visible to underwriters. 

A documented hardening checklist, applied at deployment and recorded for audit purposes, closes this gap in a way that is both practical and defensible. It gives IT teams something to show and gives leadership something to rely on. 

Making Security the Default, Not the Exception 

The most effective way to address printer security at scale is to make hardening a standard part of the deployment process, not a separate project that has to be scoped, approved, and scheduled after the device is already live on the network. 

This requires three things: a documented checklist that defines exactly what gets configured and to what standard; a trained team that applies that checklist consistently across every deployment; and a record of what was done that the customer can use for audit, compliance, and insurance purposes. 

When hardening is built into deployment, the conversation shifts. It is no longer about whether print security is worth the investment. It is simply what installation looks like. Organizations receive a hardened device, a badge on the unit confirming the standard was met, and documentation they can file for reference. The security baseline is established before the device ever prints its first page. 

Questions Security and IT Leaders Should Be Asking 

Whether or not your organization uses print services from Visual Edge IT, the following questions are worth raising about your current print environment:   

• What is the security configuration standard for printers and copiers in your organization? If the answer is "we use whatever the default settings are," that is the gap. 

• Who owns the security posture of print devices in your organization? If the answer is unclear, the gap likely is too. 

• Do you have documentation of what security settings are applied to each device at deployment? If not, your next audit or insurance renewal may surface this as a finding. 

• When were your existing devices last reviewed for security configuration? A device deployed three years ago with factory default settings has been a potential vulnerability for three years. 

• Are your print devices included in your endpoint security inventory? If they are not in scope for security tools, they are not being monitored. 

These are not rhetorical questions. They have practical answers, and organizations that work through them typically find that print security has been deprioritized not because it is unimportant but because no one had assigned it to anyone or built it into a standard process. 

Visual Edge IT introduced Certified Secure to address exactly this gap. Every qualifying multifunction device deployed by Visual Edge IT is installed, configured, and hardened to an approved security standard as part of standard deployment. Organizations receive a Visual Edge IT Certified Secure badge on the device and a documentation package for their records. Additionally, existing devices can be brought up to the same standard with no replacement required. 

Harden Your Print Environment and Improve Endpoint Protection