Printers aren’t office equipment. They’re networked computers touching sensitive data. In most enterprises, they account for 20–30% of endpoints—and 99% are unprotected. Even when not at factory defaults, many fleets lack an enforced hardening baseline, continuous monitoring, and documented remediation. That makes them quiet bridges into enterprise email, file server, and credentials systems—opening the door to undetected takeover of vital systems.
On the Tech Talks Daily podcast, Symphion CEO Jim LaRoe joined host Neil C. Hughes to break down:
- The origin story: In 2015 we found a “parallel universe” in print—large fleets hidden in supply chain, loaded with sensitive data, and no security owner. We built cross‑brand software and used a proven managed service to make printers first‑class citizens in cybersecurity—perpetual hygiene, automated, audit‑ready, with no operational lift.
- Why it’s a blind spot: History, disparate OEM tools; unused security features; no hardening baseline; organizational: no clear owner.
- How attacks happen: One printer with no hardening or patching or weak configuration like stored administrator credentials to connected systems becomes a direct (easy) entry point into enterprise systems—without detection.
- What good looks like: Perpetual print fleet hygiene across OEMs—new devices discovered within an hour, same‑day remediation for configuration changes, credential rotation, locked ports/protocols, segmentation, and delivered documentation for audit‑readiness. No operational lift.
Listen to the episode:
Next step: Book a 45-minute Print Fleet Cyber Security Assessment and Briefing with us at Contact Us. We’ll give you a board ready assessment report from a short interview, discuss best fit options available to you and associated costs and leave you with a 30-60-90 day action plan to address these risks.
