London, April 19, 2011: Canon Europe, world leader in digital imaging technology, today launched the first in its series of ‘hardening guides’ advising on best practice security configuration for its imageRUNNER ADVANCE series of multifunctional devices (MFDs).
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The guide forms part of Canon’s ongoing strategy to highlight the importance of document security, to ensure customers minimise their risk of exposure.
Despite organisations understanding the need to secure data stored on an MFD, it is often overlooked within an organisation’s overall security policy. However, with nearly a quarter of security breaches being paper-based[1] it is vital organisations have a secure printing strategy in place. Canon is producing the series of ‘hardening guides’ to highlight common pitfalls and advise on best practice configuration options to help lower the risk of exposure to potential threats. The most common threat they face today being data leakage, through the copy and distribution of unauthorized documents.
“Organisations need to understand the risk they potentially expose themselves to by leaving MFDs unprotected, as well as the positive impact on security MFDs can provide,” says Quentyn Taylor, Director of Information Security, Canon Europe. “We have effectively tested the imageRUNNER ADVANCE series from a hacker’s perspective, firstly to give third party assurance regarding the security of our products, but secondly to develop a guide for customers highlighting any potential risks through improperly configured printing solutions. This in turn allows us to advise on best practice implementation to protect against malicious attackers and accidental leakage.”
The MFD guide has been produced in conjunction with industry leading security consultancy IOActive, following its vulnerability testing of Canon’s imageRUNNER ADVANCE series. The rigorous assessment recreated an external party with malicious intensions, attempting to gain access to the MFD to obtain unauthorised information. The results outline best practice configurations to prevent risk, taking into consideration regulatory and legislative requirements.
The guide is part of Canon Europe’s ongoing security campaign, to highlight the importance of document security as part of an organisations overall policy. The aim is to ensure the MFD is a valuable asset in the battle to keep information safe, rather than a risk. The second guide in the series focuses on Canon’s uniFLOW 5.0 software, and will be published later this year.
“At Canon we always take the security of our products extremely seriously, providing a number of configuration options so they can be implemented into any environment no matter what their exposure to risk. By producing this guide we are building on the support and advice we offer customers, to enable them to minimize their risk of exposure to malicious attacks and information leakage. Additionally we provide a further layer of services to support customers, for example security audits and end-of-life services for devices to ensure they minimise their risk of exposure,” says Quentyn Taylor.
To download a copy of the imageRUNNER ADVANCE ‘hardening guide’ please visit the Canon Europe website.
[1] Ponemon Institute, LLC, February 2008
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