Security is always a hot topic, whether it relates to the physical protection of yourself and your belongings, or to technology and the constant struggles to protect company or personal data by building in one defence after another.
The need for security is a fact of life, and with threats to information security appearing more frequently and with greater force, vigilance is vital.
Protecting sensitive business information is particularly important because it encompasses the organisation`s intellectual property. Organisations need to know where their information exists, and in what formats, how it is transferred and where it is stored to protect against security breaches, regardless of whether infringements are intentional or not, internal or external.
Since much of an organisation`s secure information resides in documents, document security must form part of the overall defence strategy. The need for document security is widely recognised, now including the accompanying threats arising from the networked hard copy and document output devices.
Government, military, healthcare, legal and financial sectors have all realised the dangers presented by document output. This has been enforced by an increase in regulations surrounding corporate governance, which uphold privacy, making document security one of the greatest demands on IT personnel and end-users.
Stamp of approval
To help organisations make informed decisions around the security of their IT systems and document environments, it is advisable the industry standards are applied and security certifications achieved by product vendors.
Government, military, healthcare, legal and financial sectors have all realised the dangers presented by document output.
Ashley Groenendaal, Xerox marketing and sales support manager.
By adopting standards, vendors and organisations alike make great strides in meeting the security and privacy needs for their most sensitive information. Office devices that have received certification provide the highest level of security available.
In addition to stamps of approval, organisations also stand to benefit from security features available on document output machines from some vendors. Devices with these features effectively resist attack from intruders attempting to gain access to the information stored in the system, gaining access to a network or simply coming across unprotected information lying around the fax machine or printer.
Feature secure
While firewalls prevent unauthorised access to systems through the network connection, unprotected fax connections can be an open back door into the network. Be sure fax telephone lines are completely separated from any network connections using embedded fax security features.
Then, as part of routine job processing, image overwrite security electronically "shreds" information stored on any device hard disks. A digital copier, printer, scanner or fax machine digitally stores an image of each document on an internal hard disk drive in the form of 0s and 1s. That pattern stays on the hard drive until it is overwritten by another document. Image overwrite security obliterates this data, eliminating the risk of unauthorised access to, or removal of, information left behind. An image overwrite security process that uses a three-pass algorithm is particularly valuable in banking and financial environments.
Internal auditing features allow the machines to be activated only on the entering of an authorisation code. This not only creates more security for document production, but also provides the ability to limit the number of copies available for each person, track usage at an account or department level and download data to a PC to generate audit reports.
Access to scan, e-mail and fax features can be restricted by verifying network user names and passwords in network directories prior to use of these functions; and removable disk drive accessories enable administrators to physically remove hard drives from the machines, thus virtually eliminating the risk of unauthorised access to classified data.
Secure print features ensure that print, scan or fax jobs are safely stored at the device until the owner enters a personal number to release them. This prevents unauthorised viewing of documents sent to the printer.
Information security protects companies from a wide variety of threats to ensure business continuity, minimise business damage, and maximise return on investment and business opportunities.
Knowing the possible risks of networked office equipment and understanding the security options available to address these risks can enhance productivity by taking away the concern about information security.
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