According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) (summary here, PDF link), 58% of malware attack victims in the past year were categorized as small businesses.
These are the attacks that you don’t hear about in the news—but they can nonetheless cripple a small business, or at the very least put them out of commission for a few days or even weeks.
A network-attached (i.e., online) printer is a potential attack vector. That’s why Xerox uses only the best, state of the art security measures. The good news is that a small business doesn’t need to have an IT department to take advantage of these security features. The best thing you can do is to practice good cybersecurity habits (discussed later) and to keep your MFP up to date.
Keep Your MFP or Other Networked Xerox Devices Up to Date Always
Xerox MFPs can be set up within a few seconds to automatically update their software and firmware at a time of your choosing (e.g., 2 in the morning while everyone is gone). These updates provide end users with critical security updates, feature enhancements, and bug fixes.
Malicious actors are always looking for new ways into a network, and keeping your MFP patched to the latest security updates is an easy, completely hands-off way to prevent them from using old vulnerabilities to access your data.
How Your Xerox MFP Makes it Easy to Backup Your Data
The best protection against ransomware—a growing problem—is to have a backup of your data outside of your local network. Modern Xerox technology allows you to store your files in a cloud service (e.g., Xerox DocuShare), meaning that if your local network was ever breached and ransomware held your devices hostage, the files would still be available elsewhere.
Recovery would simply involve wiping the affected devices and restoring access to the cloud. A bit of a pain? Sure, but far better than losing everything.
Securing Your Printer is Only One Part of the Solution
The Verizon DBIR also determined that 92.4% of malware, viruses, and/or ransomware programs are delivered via email. Securing your network-attached devices like printers, laptops, and mobile devices is excellent—but you may want to strongly consider providing your team with a basic cybersecurity presentation to help them identify more targeted threats.
Simple tasks like regularly changing passwords, only opening email attachments from trusted sources, and only using fully updated software will go a long way to protecting your small business from a data breach or ransomware attack.
Keep Your Data Safe With Xerox Technology
The two key takeaways from this post are:
- Implementing strong printer security should be a very important component of your overall network cybersecurity strategy
- You do not need a full IT department to keep your data safe. Xerox makes security easy even for non-techies
Since a Xerox multifunction printer offers so many unique advantages to your small business, you’ll wonder how you ever did business without one. However, whenever you add a new networked device to your office, you should wonder how it might impact your overall security profile—and the good news is that Xerox technology makes protecting your data simple, even when you don’t have an IT department. All it takes is a few minutes of planning ahead!
If you’d like to learn more about how Xerox technology can transform your productivity and daily workflows to save time and money year after year, please feel encouraged to reach out to us at Southwest Office Solutions.
Visit us in Los Alamos or Albuquerque or call us at (888) 784-3494. If you already know what kind of office equipment you need to grow your business this year, please feel free to request a free online quote.
