HP protects the new LaserJet printers from malware attacks

HP introduces a new series of LaserJet printers dedicated to the enterprise world in which they are integrated 3 new features that enhance the specific protection and safety from attack. For their architecture, printers have become one of the most vulnerable points of access to the corporate network to external attacks.

The security in computer networks is an increasingly debated, which led various stakeholders to develop a considerable attention to the problem of attacks on its infrastructure. The rest were numerous, in the course of the last years, the advertisements related to violations of computer systems, which have led unlawful appropriation of data and information, linked in some cases to operations of companies and in others to those which are sensitive information of people.

Hence, in recent years, a steady interest from companies to take action to address the potential causes of cyber attacks directed to your private network, thus reducing to reduce the incidence of attacks on the operation of the infrastructure and on the security of their data. A work at both the network infrastructure, both on individual clients connected to this is that it is fixed locations such as various kinds of portable devices (laptops, tablets or smartphones).

A component of the enterprise network is often underestimated in terms of security infrastructure are printers on the network and ultimately feature rich as much as are the traditional PC. In fact, printer’s enterprise can be considered real PC: using its own operating system and can be the object of attack by malicious code that could lead to pierce the network company.

Despite their spread, most companies do not tend to have a management policy for specific security issues of printers: According to data from the Ponemon Institute, 47% have not yet adopted a policy on this, compared to 44% which he did, and the rest that is not safe to have implemented a policy in this regard. Securing printers, at least the more complex enterprise models, is a trend that HP introduced officially today with the debut of three new LaserJet printers belonging to the family :

• LaserJet Enterprise M506 : monochrome printer that than the previous generation sees a space saving of 25% compared to an increase in print speed up to 71%. On the market since October 12.
• LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527 : monochrome printer which also offers to scan capabilities on the two sides of the sheet, by providing a color display for the management of the various functions. Compared to the predecessor model increases the speed of printing of the first page up to 33%. On the market from November 2.
• Color LaserJet Enterprise M577 MFP : color printer, always equipped with scanning capabilities on the two sides of the paper, able to deliver up to 43% higher than the model that preceded it in the printing of sheets on both sides. On the market from November 2.

For these 3 new models HP introduces for the first-time specific functionality for the safety of operation, listed here :

• Sure Start : turn the printer allows the loading of the bios in a secure, with an automated verification that the bios has not been corrupted by an external attack. If this happened, the system will restore the original BIOS, from a secure copy (referred to as golden copy) stored in a memory partition specific.
• White listing : It will perform a check of the printer firmware to boot, making sure that this was originated by HP and no part of the code introduced by the action of malware. If the problems are recorded printed it is immediately turned off and restarted in a safe operating mode, waiting for the intervention of the manager of the IT infrastructure which has since been sent a message.
• Run-time intrusion detection : It continuously monitors the activity of the printer, scanning the memory for any abnormalities. Should you encounter a problem, the system proceeds with an automatic restart of the printer, so as to free the memory from the data it contains, the administrator reporting infrastructure condition has occurred.

Rounding out this set of features are HP JetAdvantage Security Manager, a software management of printers in its network through which you can quickly monitor the status of each device and intervene with operations management and maintenance specifications.

The added value of this solution is the ability to manage the security policies for the printers on the network intervening between the other open doors, disabling access protocols, proceeding with an automatic deletion of files saved and managing operations to restart.

Michael Smetana, vice president, LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions EMEA at HP, stressed that those interested to carry out an attack in an infrastructure company tends to see printers as one of the weakest links at present.

And this in mind, HP has chosen to intervene by providing new levels of protection to their new products for the press and noting how these features will become progressively standard for enterprise-class printers.

HP hopes that this attention to security printers will soon become a trend common to all companies in the sector: considering how easily you can use printer’s enterprise, which point of unauthorized access to the company’s network infrastructure is not surprising to expect in near future announcements of this magnitude even by others in the industry.

All future HP family FutureSmart will complement the 3 security solutions mentioned above. Over the coming months, HP will provide firmware updates for its printers FutureSmart produced since 2010, which will be implemented in these products the functionality of the white listing and intrusion detection. The Sure Start but will not be present, as it requires a specific hardware component that must be present in the printer.

The security support of printers also enterprise has long since been on the market confirms the attention that HP turned to security of their printers within the networking infrastructure of the company, and in general the effort for years is brought forward in the direction of making its products more secure from malicious attacks from outside.