Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) today unveiled three new enterprise class LaserJet printers that supply superior protection when it comes to malicious attacks. The bolstered security is part of a long term HP strategy to give profound security across desktops as well as printers. Tuan Tran of HP stated that shielding against security breaches is one of the significant challenges faced by HP customers. HP is helping customers secure their existing devices, vital documents and critical information by defending its enterprise printers with the strongest security in the industry. Sound and robust protection in the industry printer security is a subject of growing relevance today.
Ponemon institute study found that 64% of IT managers suspected that their printers were infected with malware while 56% of enterprise organizations do not factor in printers in their security strategy.
HP has features to bolster security in its enterprise laser printers. These features which include Secure White listing, HP SureStart and run-time intrusion software are additions to the existing security measures. The latter include hardware protection data encryption and privacy state-of-the-art key security standards as well as access control.
These functionality are not dependent on hardware. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) says that these security measures can be put on old printers via firmware upgrades. In other words instead of buying a new printer, users can update the existing printers they are currently using.
The first functionality termed HP SureStart uses a secured hardware controller. In this a hardware-based Root of Trust is utilized to benchmark the BIOS with a golden copy. If it is sensed that the BIOS is corrupt or subjected to attack the printer will be reflashed to the earlier safe start location.
This helps minimize downtime as the concerned printer doesn’t have to be transported to be reflashed. Also enterprises need not await a technician.
In intrusion detection, the concerned printer device will constantly monitor memory to track intrusion.
Whitelisting safeguards the printer from running tinkered software. Leveraging a digital signature the printer’s CPU will check if HP-authentic code is loaded.
