SECURITY SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS IMAGING

Epson Security Guidebook Security Guidebook Function List
BUSINESS IMAGING SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Epson and security

At Epson, we understand that security is paramount for businesses - to keep your data secure, and to make sure that regulations are complied with. Understanding the risks is key, but we also implement a variety of security features and solutions across our products to help keep your business safe.

What are the security risks?

It can be easy for companies to overlook necessary information security measures when it comes to networked devices, such as multifunction printers (MFPs) and scanners, yet these can be subject to the same sort of security weaknesses as any other connected or networked device.

The risks can effectively be broken down into two key vulnerabilities; as an entry point to your company's network, and as a storage place for personal information.

Data Loss from a print and scan perspective

In a study carried out by Quocirca of 200 enterprises with over 1,000 employees, the research company asked, 'How much of a concern are each of the following threats to print security in your organisation?'. Ranked highly across an average of all sectors was a concern around access to an IT network via an unsecured printer, along with a lack of an audit trail when using printers, scanners and copiers.

They were also asked, 'what is the nature of the data loss from a print perspective?'. Chief among the concerns polled were print jobs being intercepted at the print queue or on a network, followed closely by the theft or retrieval of a printer's hard disk, and data leaked from unclaimed print jobs in the output tray. (Quocirca, Print security: An imperative in the IoT era, 2017)

What the research by Quocirca highlights is that there are quite a variety of vulnerabilities that businesses are aware of and concerned about. What will be discussed shortly is how these vulnerabilities can be managed and contained using hardware and software features.

What is GDPR and what is its relevance to device security?

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, and will also supersede local law. It has been designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens' data privacy and to reshape the way organisations approach data privacy.

What constitutes personal data?

Any information related to a natural person or ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. It can be anything from a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer IP address.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

Organisations can be fined up to 4% of their annual global turnover for breaching GDPR or up to €20 Million¹. It is important to note that these rules apply to both controllers and processors – meaning that 'clouds' will not be exempt from GDPR enforcement.

What does this have to do with Epson?

Printers, MFDs and scanners all need to be considered as part of an overall information security strategy. This means that data is encrypted where possible, print jobs are only released to authorised users and devices are protected from malicious malware.

Epson’s approach to security

At Epson, we continue to strengthen the functional network capabilities of our devices to improve user-friendliness for our customers and to fit into the development of our information-orientated society. In our manufacturing processes, we consider security throughout the life cycle of the product, from design until the customer is finished using it.

Appropriate considerations for security for computers and servers alike are necessary, particularly when connecting to and using a network. At Epson, we take the following approach regarding security so our customers can use our products safely and with ease.

1.

We treat our products’ security as the basis of our products’ quality.

2.

We actively provide information and knowledge about security for our customers.

3.

We constantly work to protect against vulnerabilities.

Key security features on Epson printers and MFDs

Pin code printing

Restrict access to confidential printed information by using the secure PIN Code function on our WorkForce Pro printers. For extra peace of mind, the printers also support the latest security and encryption protocols, including IPSEC and IEEE802.1x.

Secure/encrypted communication

You can filter IP addresses, types of services, reception and transmission port numbers, etc, that have access to Epson devices by using the IP Filtering function. It's also possible to encrypt all network communication using the IPSec function. Depending on the combination of these filters, you can set up whether to accept or block data from a particular client and to accept or block specific types of data.

Protecting your address book

When batch editing an all-in-one printer’s address book, you can prevent the disclosure of address information and unauthorised manipulation by requiring an administrator password. Also, since multiple address books can be saved as an encrypted file, you can prevent the disclosure of personal information, such as fax numbers and email addresses when replacing or backing up the all-in-one printer.

When you dispose of your MFP

When transferring or disposing a printer, you can return all settings back to the factory default (initialisation) to prevent the disclosure of confidential information.

Key security features on Epson scanners and MFDs

Secure document processing and efficient data management

Administrators can manage a variety of tasks centrally from scan job profiles to user access rights. IT administrators have the ability to control access rights to jobs in a number of ways including User ID and password, LDAP Active Directory, ID Card log in, and pin code.

On device

Administrators can remotely lock screens to prevent unauthorised profile amendments. Ensuring each users job specific profiles are made available wherever they are within the business.

PDF protection

Add file level document restriction to scanned PDF files with password protection functionality that protects against unauthorised file opening.

Property protection

Restrict the actions and capabilities of document recipients by restricting editing and printing functions.

PDF/A

Create PDFs that conform to PDF/A-1 or ISO19005-1 standards

Secure scanning

You can scan data into password-protected PDF files. This can prevent third parties from viewing documents without authorisation.

Key security features available through software solutions

Prevent unauthorised user access to MFDs and scanners

Automatically authenticate and identify users and their access profiles. Control and track what each user can and can’t do at a device, protecting valuable business data throughout business processes. Also improve compliance with protected access to MFPs and authorised pre-defined functions. This helps significantly lower the possibility of information leakage from MFPs.

Scan-to-me

Although sending documents over email is an efficient and convenient way to share documents, the practice can be risky. Emailed documents containing sensitive information (such as bank account information or birth dates) that are inadvertently sent to the wrong person can have serious consequences. Authorised users scan documents and email the results to a pre-set email address to avoid scanned documents with confidential information and regulated documents being misrouted.

File destination control

Predefined workflows, fax numbers and email addresses ensure documents are sent to correct destinations. Epson can help any organisation to avoid the misrouting of scanned documents and reduce errors with pre-defined capture processes.

Automate business processes

Rules-based document recognition solutions allow scanned documents to be delivered to the right teams automatically. Advanced data extraction tools, including character and mark recognition, barcode as well as database look up, enable important content to be accurately verified and delivered to business applications, reducing work duplication and keeping manual interventions to a minimum.

Prevent employees to pick up unauthorised documents

Secure print maximises the use of all shared devices and keeps confidential documents out of the wrong hands. Documents are released securely by the owner of the documents to prevent confidential or sensitive data being left lying around, making sure it will only be seen by the intended recipient.

Document Management Systems

What’s inside this whitepaper:

  • Introduction

  • Exploring the features of Document Management Systems (DMSs)

  • What to consider when deploying DMSs

  • The three-step DMS integration plan

  • Why are scanners essential to DMSs?

  • About Epson

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1 This is the maximum fine that can be imposed for the most serious infringements e.g. not having sufficient customer consent to process data or violating the core of Privacy by Design concepts. There is a tiered approach to fines e.g. a company can be fined 2% for not having their records in order, not notifying the supervising authority and data subject about a breach or not conducting impact assessment.