Over half of businesses breached through unsecured printers - analyst

Analyst says human error is the greatest cause of printer breaches, despite most organisations believing it to be malware

Sixty per cent of businesses were breached last year as a result of security flaws in print devices, according to Quocirca.

The analyst claimed that the majority of breaches are triggered by an organisation's employees, despite 70 per cent of businesses believing malware to be the biggest threat to them.

It added that the average cost of a print-related breach is £313,000.

Quocirca research director Louella Fernandes said: "Our research consistently shows that businesses remain reliant on print, but the way it is used is changing.

"Print infrastructure is vulnerable to all the threats associated with IoT devices, but also to risks linked to hard copy output.

"The number of print-related breaches reported by the organisations we surveyed is concerning and the lack of security maturity shows that businesses can and should do more.

"With the financial, legal and reputational consequences of data breaches escalating, print security is intrinsic to an organisation's security posture and a risk that should be managed at boardroom level."

Quocirca said that 11 per cent of all security issues are print related, with employees responsible for around 32 per cent of these incidents.