McAfee, Xerox partner on printer security

security policies seriously, McAfee and Xerox are teaming up to protect sensitive data stored on office printers, eWeek reveals.

Yet another survey found that employees are either not aware of their company's security policies or not bothering to follow them. More than half of employees didn't always follow their organisation's IT security policies and 21% weren't aware of what they were, according to a survey jointly commissioned by Xerox and McAfee released 14 February.

These findings are consistent with previous surveys where employees admitted to ignoring policies that weren't convenient, restricted them from doing their jobs or weren't enforced at all, CIO Insight reports.

Pointing to the survey results as a sign that some of the biggest threats to corporate data come from inside the organisation, McAfee announced plans to integrate its security software inside Xerox products to protect proprietary company data. The new security system would rely on a white-listing method that would allow only approved files to run on the device instead of trying to maintain a blacklist of malicious programs that could try to extract the data or take control of the device.

The deal reflects McAfee's push from its traditional PC security market into other devices, CRN notes.

While PCs remain the dominant location for McAfee technology, the company sees a much larger potential market in Internet-connected embedded devices, such as printers, ATMs and set-top boxes. McAfee, which is owned by Intel, is also targeting mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

For manufacturers like Xerox, having tight security in products is an important feature to have when selling to businesses.