As we quickly transition into a new year, I think back on 2017 and the rash of cyber security stories that made national and international news. Ransomware like WannaCry and NotPetya, the Equifax breach, SMBv1 and SSL vulnerabilities, etc. Even a global phishing scam used a fake Konica Minolta C224e scan to email message as bait.
Most noteworthy in the printer industry were the major campaigns launched by various MFP and print providers. As it turned out, one of the most prolific printer security campaigns actually backfired when it was discovered that the very printer vulnerabilities described in the campaign were actually discovered on their own portfolio of enterprise printers. You couldn’t make it up if you tried.
Going back further to the beginning of the decade, two compelling broadcast news stories regarding printer data security continue to linger in my mind. One reported on a large healthcare insurance provider that was fined $1.3 million because it failed to secure patient data that was on its multifunction device (MFD) hard drives after the lease expired and the machine left the premises. The other highlighted the public’s fear that confidential and private data could be stolen by hackers from the hard drive of an MFD – but, according to the report, the average American doesn’t want to pay for such protection.
So, I guess those “average Americans” all have $1.3 million lying around since they don’t want to pay for the protection before a major breach occurs. But that’s okay because they can spend a fraction of that amount on Konica Minolta’s data security and compliance solutions – like our bizhub SECURE services – which can help them not only save a lot of money but, more importantly, greatly increase the integrity and protection of data inside the MFP. And the protection of data is critical, especially in industries that are governed by strict compliance laws, like education, finance, healthcare and legal.
Created in 2011, Konica Minolta’s award-winning bizhub SECURE is a professional service that assures each customer’s bizhub multifunction printer is set up with secure complex administrator passwords and other hard drive specific security measures, such as hard drive encryption, hard drive lock password, automatic deletion of temporary image data, and data overwrite of electronic documents on a timed basis. It was created for customers who do not have the infrastructure, the bandwidth or the resources to configure their multifunction printers alone and need assistance to lock down every unit’s hard drive. More than 200,000 Konica Minolta MFDs have bizhub SECURE enabled at customer sites worldwide. To date, not one of our competitors offers anything quite like it.
More recently, we have expanded our print security offering by adding bizhub SECURE Platinum. This new enhanced security service provides many of the functions that both the standard bizhub SECURE and bizhub SECURE Healthcare provide with added focus on network security protection along with user access and authentication. The added network settings meet stringent industry requirements, such as Finance (PCI) and Education (FERPA). What types of clients would be interested in bizhub SECURE Platinum? Anyone concerned about hard drive and network security in their MFDs. That would be Education, Finance, Retail, Government and Legal — just to name a few.
We engineer every bizhub product as a total system and provide Common Criteria ISO 15408 EAL security certification for each product. Whether you’re concerned about network intrusion, data theft, or compliance, Konica Minolta bizhub technology can offer you a sense of security demanded by internal clients or federal legislation. In addition, our All Covered IT Services subsidiary provides you with outsourcing services to maintain IT security requirements so that you can spend more time focusing on business instead of worrying about IT Security. While bizhub SECURE and All Covered protect businesses internally, we have our Workplace of the Future™ product portfolio, which includes Mobotix intelligent video surveillance systems — to protect organizations externally, including facilities and personnel.
So it’s evident that we have the technology, products, services, and educational materials to help our clients and partners confidently use our bizhub multifunction devices without risk from physical attackss or MFD-based breaches of any confidential or Personally Identifiable information (PII). We have it because we know how crucial it is to the health of any business in today’s connected world.
I cringe every time I see a news broadcast report on yet another security or data breach, hurting businesses and individuals. And the only way to prevent future reports is for businesses to make a smaller investment into data security now before they’re forced to pay a huge price later.
Update: On January 3, two new vulnerabilities made national headlines – Meltdown and Spectre. These vulnerabilities affect computer processors designed and manufactured by Intel, AMD and ARM. It’s important to note that the vulnerabilities in the affected CPUs are dependent on malware running locally on the device, which means it’s imperative for users to practice good security hygiene by keeping their software up-to-date and avoid suspicious links or downloads.