Security Think Tank: Printer risks go deep into IT history

Though rarely discussed in a cyber context, the prevalence of connected printers and MFPs does pose security risks both technological and physical. What does a print security strategy need to take into account?

…This east-west traffic in local areas is the bane of the security professional. It makes the network harder to manage as it sprawls outwards, often in the uncontrolled IT equivalent of a shanty town. This, in turn, created the ecosystem in which security threats evolved, moving from viruses spread by floppy disks to those that spread directly over the network, and their descendants we see to this day, such as ransomware spreaders that can take over oil pipelines.