The world may have gone digital, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with paper. For offices, schools, and especially healthcare facilities, printing remains a big part of day to day life, whether it’s business reports, patient records, exams, or marketing materials. This makes efficient and reliable printing critical to the overall success of the organization.
But with cyberattacks on the rise, print security is equally important, and basic security solutions like authentication are no longer enough. Yet, while in theory print authorization is key to maintaining control over who can access which documents, it’s challenging to implement in a large-scale printing environment such as a hospital.
Let’s explore some practical solutions to these barriers – but first, let’s talk about why print authorization is required in the first place.
Print Authorization and Authentication 101: Understanding the Basics
It might sound fancy, but print authorization is really just about the level of access that different people within an organization have to different materials and content. In a work, school, or healthcare setting, it means that only approved staff members are permitted to authorize the printing of confidential, sensitive, or important documents for example.
Obviously the bigger and more complicated the printing environment, the harder it is to have visibility and control over who is printing what. And if IT teams don’t know which files, rooms, or floors staff have access to, this can present a major security risk. On the flip side, it’s critical that staff can access the resources they need when they need them – for example, in a hospital, the patient would suffer if their doctor was unable to view their medical record or print their prescription on the spot.
The way that most organizations manage print authorization is through authentication: that is, a process of verifying the identity of a user before allowing printing, which ensures that only authorized users can access or print confidential information. But is it enough to maintain privacy and security?
Beyond Basic Authentication: The Need for Granular Control
Unsecured network printers and multifunction devices pose a security risk, by increasing the potential attack surface for cybercriminals. They can be used to gain unauthorized entry to systems and networks, leading to data breaches which cause financial loss and reputational damage. In fact, 27% of all security incidents are document-related, according to the 2023 Quocirca Print Security Landscape report .
What’s more, certain industries—including healthcare and finance—must comply with strict regulations around the handling and disposal of sensitive documents, such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
For organizations to protect sensitive data, they must ensure the total security of their print environment. In today’s digital landscape, basic authentication measures are no longer sufficient – what’s needed is a granular level of control.
Mitigating Shadow IT: Bringing Rogue Printers Under Control
In a large, complex printing environment spread across multiple devices, departments, and locations, there may be printers in use without the approval or oversight of the IT department. For example, individuals or departments could bring in printers that haven’t been integrated into the organization’s network security protocols.
Eliminating the use of this “shadow IT” involves identifying rogue printers and bringing them under control of the IT department, to ensure they’re compliant with the company’s device security standards. Centralized enterprise printing enables the IT team to monitor all printers on the network, as well as user accounts and permissions – providing granular control over the level of authorization that each staff member has.
Mobile, BYOD and Guest Printing: Secure Access for Everyone
The growth of remote working and BYOD (bring your own device) allows employees to enjoy flexibility in how they work – but also makes it harder to provide reliable and secure access to printing resources. To support the modern workforce, organizations require proper mobile printing capabilities. With cloud-based printing, employees can print documents from any location on any device without the need for an on-premise print server.
The key is leveraging a centralized print solution that can be managed from a single console, regardless of the number of mobile devices and locations in play. PaperCut’s Mobility Print enables location-based printing so that printers are assigned according to where the user is. This means the right print job is sent to the right printer (usually the closest) and data remains private, helping reduce the risk of unauthorized access – for example if a document ended up on a print tray in another building or hospital.
Secure Print Release: Preventing Sensitive Documents from Falling into the Wrong Hands
To further protect sensitive information, secure print release functionality ensures that documents are only printed when the authorized person is physically present at the printer.
When the user sends a print job from their device, the document is held in a secure print queue until they authenticate themselves at the printer, typically with a PIN code or badge. The printer will release the print job only after this authentication takes place. This prevents confidential documents from sitting unattended in the tray and being picked up by the wrong person, whether accidentally or intentionally.
Automated User Provisioning: Streamlining Onboarding and Offboarding
In large organizations, with hundreds or even thousands of employees, managing user access is difficult and time-consuming. Manual processes for onboarding and offboarding are also prone to human errors, which can result in mistakenly leaving a former employee’s access active or failing to give new employees appropriate access rights.
Automated provisioning helps ensure that access to systems, including printers, is tightly controlled – so that the wrong person doesn’t gain access to resources they shouldn’t. (Conversely, it also makes sure that everyone has access to the things that they need to do their job.) It simplifies and streamlines the process and ensures consistency across the board, even as organizations start scaling up and taking on a greater number of employees.
Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting: Gaining Visibility into Print Activity
A centralized print environment makes it easier to keep track of who printed what and when – with print management software delivering detailed reports on printing usage, patterns, and costs. This data can drive informed decision-making around how to improve printing efficiency and security. But most importantly, detailed tracking and reporting provides end-to-end visibility over the entire print ecosystem, which is fundamental to controlling print activity across a large-scale environment.
With increased security risks, organizations today need to adopt robust authentication protocols to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. Implementing a print management solution not only simplifies authentication through secure print release, but delivers a range of additional benefits, from automated user provisioning to real-time monitoring and tracking – ensuring the right user has the right authorization to the right documents, every single time.
