While network attacks from hackers and computer viruses command most of our attention, one of the biggest threats to organizational security may be sitting in the hall just outside your office.

Protect Your Intellectual Property
Most organizations have critical intellectual property that they need to protect. Sometimes this involves proprietary trade secrets. Other companies may store sensitive financial or medical information. Or, they may store valuable information like customer lists or pricing schedules. Loss of this information could be devastating.

Printers and Copiers: A Security Risk
In the world of network attacks, printers, copiers, and fax machines are easy to overlook. However, these systems provide a way for information to walk out the door without anyone noticing.

Three Security Strategies
The good news is that there are steps you can take to enhance security around your printers and copiers. Following are a few practical suggestions.

Control and/or Track Printing Access
Do you have a record of who is printing documents on your network? Do your employees enter a tracking code before they run a print or copy job?

Output tracking technologies can keep a record of which documents are printed. This creates an environment where employees are reluctant to steal information through the printer. If there ever is a question, you can access the printing logs to see the documents an employee has printed. Similar technologies can track usage on copiers and fax machines. While it might be impossible to stop every possible theft, with these safeguards in place, your staff will know that the company is monitoring information security.

Encrypt Hard Drives on Multifunction Systems
When you scan a document on a multifunction system, the scanned image is temporarily stored on the device’s hard drive before it is sent off to an email address or network folder location.

On some multifunction systems, this information is vulnerable to theft if the hard drive of the system is stolen. However, new security technologies ensure that all scanned documents are encrypted on the multifunction system’s hard drive and ensure that the files are erased after they have been transmitted.

Implement an Electronic Document Management System
An Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) provides a central repository for paper and digital information. Only employees with appropriate passwords can access the information. The system keeps a log of any document that has been viewed. In some systems administrators can control what a user does with a document once it is retrieved. For example, users can be restricted from printing, emailing, or saving certain types of documents.

These are just a few ideas on how to enhance security. To learn more about how you can protect your vital information, contact us today.