HP seeks to make printers more secure

Office equipment manufacturer HP has introduced a new way to ensure that printers are secure against hackers, it has emerged.

The office machines company has warned firms that data breaches which occur through networked printers are not as unusual as people might think.

"Hackers are looking for the weakest link. And if you look at a printer, it has an embedded operation system, it has storage and very few controls," said director of HP‘s Secure Print Advantage programme, according to vnunet.com.

In seeking to ensure that the office machines do not fall prey to a data compromise, HP turned to the technology involved in protecting automatic cash machines.

Atalla, a division of HP, has been estimated by the company to secure 80 per cent of US transactions which use cash machines.

From this base, it developed Secure Print Advantage, which encrypts and decrypts data on transit between workstations and printers.

HP admitted that the new system will probably be too expensive for consumers at first, but it said it hopes to release it to the general public by February 2008 and expects the price will have decreased.

Recently, HP announced that it had created partnerships with various web properties, which would provide users with opportunities for more customised printing options.

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