Digital transformation in the SME sector has reached a tipping point, but in this technological rush, one of the most obvious elements of office infrastructure has been forgotten. While the attention of IT departments is focused on securing the cloud, implementing AI and protecting employee laptops, there are ‘sleeper agents’ in the corners of offices – multifunction devices (MFPs). Today, the printer is no longer just a simple peripheral; it is an advanced endpoint with its own processor, hard drive and operating system, permanently connected to the heart of the corporate network.
This makes printing devices the biggest ‘blind spot’ (blind spot) of modern cyber security. The data is unforgiving: according to Quocirca’s Managed Print Services Landscape report, more than 60% of organisations admitted to having experienced a data security breach linked directly to their print infrastructure in the past year.
Why do hackers ‘love’ printers so much? The answer is painful in its simplicity. These devices are rarely covered by log monitoring systems (SIEM), their firmware tends to be updated sporadically, and in many companies – horror of horrors – they still operate on default administrator passwords. For a cybercriminal, an unsecured printer is the perfect ‘Trojan horse’ – a silent port of entry that allows them to infiltrate a network without sounding the alarm on major defence systems.
Anatomy of an attack: How does a printer become a base of operations?
Today’s cybercriminal rarely attacks the most heavily guarded ‘front door’ of the IT infrastructure. Instead, he or she looks for a side entrance, which increasingly turns out to be an unsecured multifunctional device (MFP). The attack through the printer is a textbook example of a lateral movement strategy – once the device has been infiltrated, the attacker uses it as a base to silently scan the internal network and escalate privileges. Because MFPs rarely come under the magnifying glass of monitoring systems (SIEM), a hacker can spend months intercepting scanned documents or stealing data from the device’s hard drive, remaining completely invisible to traditional anti-viruses.
Nor should we forget the simplest, physical dimension of risk. Confidential financial reports or personal data left unattended on a receiving tray is an invitation to a data leak, which can have dramatic consequences under the RODO regime. Sharp expert Szymon Trela points out that the foundation of defence here is rigorous configuration hygiene, which still remains the biggest challenge for IT departments:
“Among the most important mistakes in the configuration of MFPs is the lack of settings to restrict access to the device. It is worth considering defining IP or MAC addresses of devices with print privileges and blocking unused ports, which significantly reduces the field of attack. A very restrictive but effective setting is also to create a list of applications and processes that can communicate with the MFP. The second group of settings are encryption issues – both network communication and data stored by the device, always using the latest versions of the protocols. And finally, automatic system software updates are key. New firmware versions respond to emerging threats and address critical security issues. These updates are downloaded from the manufacturer’s trusted servers, which in the case of Sharp is a standard option for our customers,” – says Szymon Trela, Product Manager at Sharp Systems Business Poland.
From ‘weakest link’ to active protection
In 2026, the endpoint protection paradigm has shifted from defensive access blocking towards active analytics and real-time anomaly detection. Modern MFPs have ceased to be passive recipients of data and have become intelligent security sensors. Thanks to the Security by Design architecture, solutions such as integration with antivirus engines (e.g. Bitdefender) or TPM (Trusted Platform Module) modules allow system integrity to be verified at the boot stage. If the system software has been compromised, the device will simply not boot, preventing the spread of infections within the network.
However, the real revolution is happening in the active monitoring layer. In the age of AI-driven automated attacks, humans cannot react fast enough. Therefore, it is the device itself that must take on the role of gatekeeper. This approach turns the MFP from a potential ‘Trojan horse’ into an advanced defence post that not only protects itself, but also alerts the entire organisation to danger.
“There are a number of solutions in modern MFPs that help to monitor IT networks for security. One example is the anti-virus software installed on the device. Its primary task is, of course, to detect viruses that may appear in the print data. But in addition to this function, it also monitors the device’s system software and detects potential attempts to infect it with viruses or malware. In addition to this, it scans all network traffic passing through the device, blocking attempts to use the MFP to break into the corporate network. Of course, any suspicious events can be reported to those responsible. This solution is extremely useful in smaller organisations that do not have dedicated departments responsible for security. Another solution is the detection of attempted DoS attacks. If too many communication attempts from the same IP addresses are detected within a certain time period, the device automatically blocks the suspicious addresses, creating a list of them. This process takes place in the background, but it is also possible to report these events to the relevant people. For corporate customers, it is extremely important to integrate MFPs with SIEM class systems, which report any incidents in real time.” – comments Szymon Trela, Product Manager at Sharp Systems Business Poland.
The use of anti-virus software directly on the MFP is a ‘game changer’ for the SME sector. In small businesses, where one person often combines the roles of IT manager, administrator and technical support, any automation is at a premium. A device that blocks Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and cuts off suspicious IP addresses on its own acts like an invisible bodyguard.
For the big players, on the other hand, integration with SIEM systems closes the infrastructure visibility gap that has been treated as an audit blind spot for years. It brings printer logs into the same dashboard as data from servers or firewalls, allowing for full event correlation and instant NIS2-compliant incident response. In this way, the MFP becomes a fully-fledged, active component of the cyber security ecosystem.
Printer in the NIS2 and RODO regime: Technical standards
In 2026, ‘compliance’ has become a matter of business survival. The entry into force of the stringent requirements of the NIS2 Directive and the evolving interpretation of RODO have meant that any gap in the infrastructure – including that ‘standing in the corner of the corridor’ – can give rise to severe financial penalties. For an auditor, a printer is no longer a peripheral device; it is a data processing node that must meet so-called state-of-the-art cyber security standards.
The biggest challenge for security engineers today is to ensure the so-called Root of Trust, i.e. an unchanging foundation of trust in the hardware. Standard software security is not enough. If a device’s firmware is altered by an attacker, no amount of file encryption will help.
“It is extremely important to have functionalities that guarantee the integrity of the device, i.e. to ensure that the device systems have not been altered in an unauthorised way. For this reason, features that automatically detect the correctness of the system software and BIOS and, if they are changed, automatically restore the correct version are of great importance. This protects the device at the most basic level and ensures overall security. The second extremely important issue is the reporting of any suspicious events to the responsible persons, and it is important, even in the smallest organisation, to designate such persons and establish a procedure to deal with such cases. Finally, it should be noted that the technical aspects are only part of the security problem. In order to manage it properly, especially in the context of RODO, it is necessary to introduce other measures, related to the protection of documents, primarily these are: secure printing and user authorisation.” – says Szymon Trela, Product Manager at Sharp Systems Business Poland.
The approach mentioned by the expert fits perfectly with the Security by Design concept. The mechanisms of a ‘self-healing’ BIOS (Self-Healing BIOS) is a key parameter that procurement departments should look at today. From a NIS2 perspective, a device that can detect manipulation in its own code and restore a secure version of the software drastically reduces risk in the supply chain.
However, technology is only half the battle. RODO requires evidence of data protection at every point of contact. That’s why features such as Secure Print, which requires a contactless card to be swiped or a PIN to be entered at the device, are ceasing to be a convenient add-on and becoming an essential means of control. Without them, every payroll or contract left on a collection tray is a potential security incident that, in 2026, you must report to a supervisory authority within 72 hours.
