# Printer security for organisations with printers at five or more offices

Source: https://managedprinterservices.com/printer-security/
Last updated: 2026-10-04
Operated by Global Document Solutions, ABN 89 567 852 183, Unit 1/8 Glasson Dr, Bethania QLD 4205. Phone 1300 873 460.

## Printer security across every office you run

Ten offices can mean 10 admin pages, each still on its factory password.

A networked printer is a small computer, often with storage and its own web page.

With one supplier for every office, one written checklist covers them all.

- Who fixes a printer at each site
- Operated by Global Document Solutions.

### One security checklist for every office printer

Name your offices and the printer settings IT audits.

Global Document Solutions supplies a printer to each office on one agreement, so one written security checklist can cover every site.

### Does a business printer need security?

Yes, the same as any other computer on your network.

According to the Information Security Manual, equipment left on its defaults can give attackers a foothold.

The Australian Signals Directorate publishes it, and its glossary lists multifunction devices beside computers.

A printer scans to email, stores jobs and takes commands over the network.

Each one runs firmware, its own built in software, and often holds a drive.

Kyocera Document Solutions Australia notes a deleted job can stay on that drive until the space is reused.

None of it shows on the front panel, so it goes unchecked.

One office with one printer is one place to check.

Ten offices make ten places, each set up by whoever installed it.

Holding a job until its owner reaches the printer is a separate control.

That control, with its print record, is covered on the page on card release and print logs.

This page covers the printer itself and the network around it.

Firmware and overwrite are both defined in the plain list of print terms.

The rules staff follow are set out in a ten clause policy for staff printing.

Last updated 4 October 2026.

### What are the business printer security risks?

Four parts of every printer face the network.

Admin page

Anyone who gets into it can redirect scans or reset the password.

Firmware

Brother Australia's November 2024 guide lists firmware updates first among its steps for an office printer.

Storage drive

Scanned pages and held jobs can rest there after printing.

Network port

Every open protocol, a set way of talking over the network, is another way in.

A weakness at one printer repeats at every printer set up the same way.

The reverse holds too.

A printer hardened in Sydney tells you nothing about the one in Perth.

### How do I make my printer secure?

Six settings, applied the same way at every office.

- Change the default admin password before the printer joins the network.
- Apply the maker's current firmware, and record the version for each site.
- Turn on drive encryption and overwrite, which writes over deleted jobs, where offered.
- Switch off the protocols and ports the office does not use.
- Limit the admin page to addresses your IT team controls.
- Put printers on their own network segment, a fenced off part of the network.

The manual says changing or removing default accounts at initial setup helps cut that risk.

Kyocera Document Solutions Australia adds account lockout after repeated wrong logins.

It also describes models that accept traffic only from a set range of addresses.

According to UC Berkeley's security office, printers should never face the public internet.

Write the six settings down once as your approved printer configuration.

Control ISM-1913 in the same manual wants approved configurations for IT equipment, kept up to date.

Every office then works from the same list, and every new printer starts from it.

### Can I password protect my printer?

Yes, at two levels.

The admin password guards the settings, so agree in writing who holds it.

A user login guards the printing itself, with a card or a code.

Card or code release runs on PaperCut, as an optional extra priced in your quote.

Offices with controlled rooms are covered on Canberra managed print with held printing.

Kyocera Document Solutions Australia describes authorisation that limits what each user can change at the device.

Staff print and scan, and nobody else reaches the settings.

A shared admin password across ten offices is one password to lose.

A different password at each office needs a safe place to keep it.

Keep them wherever your other device passwords live.

Printing without a print server at each site is an optional extra too.

It works with Microsoft 365, and any setup or subscription cost is in the quote.

From $160 + GST a month per device.

Standard plans, tailored to your fleet. Excess page rates are stated in your quote and are normally the same at every location.

Paper, staples and pages above your agreed volume sit outside that figure.

### How can I tell if my printer has been hacked?

Compare it with the configuration you approved.

A setting nobody changed, such as a new scan to email address, is the first clue.

Jobs nobody sent are another, as is an admin password that stops working.

A firmware version that differs from your record is a third.

Control ISM-1598 calls for an inspection after maintenance or repairs, to confirm the approved configuration held.

That check matters most on a fleet serviced at many addresses.

The manual also asks for a register of networked equipment, verified regularly.

A register lists each printer by office, with its firmware version.

If you suspect a compromise, take the printer off the network and report it through ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au.

According to the OAIC, 1,205 data breaches were notified to it in 2025, up 8 per cent on 2024.

If personal information was exposed, the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme may apply.

Your privacy adviser decides that.

### Why does printer risk grow with every office?

Each site adds a printer, and each printer adds four ways in.

A group that bought printers office by office can run several brands and firmware levels.

Each brand has its own admin page and its own update routine.

Owned printers cannot join our agreement, so every site is supplied one under it.

Fewer models across the group means fewer configurations for IT to approve.

Every site reports a printer fault to the same desk. An authorised dealer or the manufacturer attends.

A technician generally reaches a capital city site within 4 hours, and a regional town the next business day.

Those times are the usual pattern, never a term of the agreement.

After any visit, check the printer against your approved configuration.

Offices move across one at a time, over months, so no site changes overnight.

One invoice covers every site, with a report for each one.

Each plan pays for toner and parts, and for servicing labour.

See the published plans behind each supplied printer.

Printers are serviced across Australia.

A softer first step is tallying the leases and suppliers behind your printers, in four taps.

### What should happen before a printer leaves a site?

The drive leaves with it, so clear it first.

The manual treats a hard disk inside equipment as media to remove or wipe clean.

For printers, control ISM-0317 asks for at least three pages of random text on each colour cartridge or drum.

Check the paper path for jammed pages, too.

On our agreement, an end of term data wipe is a paid option, with clear exit terms.

Ask for it in the quote if your policy needs one.

The return side is set out in what the agreement says when a printer goes back.

Put the same question to anyone else with the questions to send every managed print supplier.

A printer moving between offices carries its drive too.

Clear it before the move, and record the new site in your register.

### What should any supplier put in writing?

Six answers, the same for every office.

Printer security points to settle in writing before you commit

| Ask in writing | Why it matters |
| --- | --- |
| Who changes the default admin password at install | The manual asks for it at initial setup |
| Who applies firmware updates, and how often | Each office stays on the version you approved |
| Whether drive encryption and overwrite are on | Held jobs stay unreadable on the drive |
| Which ports and protocols are closed | Fewer ways in at every site |
| How a printer is checked after a repair | The manual asks for that inspection |
| What happens to the drive at the end | A wipe is a paid option, so it goes in the quote |

### Printer security questions IT leads ask

#### Does a managed print agreement cover printer firmware?

Every plan covers toner and parts, along with labour and servicing.

Firmware is a separate question to settle in writing.

Ask any supplier who applies updates, and how often.

#### Is the printer's drive wiped when the agreement ends?

Not as standard.

A data wipe at the end of the term is a paid option.

The exit terms are set out plainly in the quote.

#### Can printers we already own join and keep their settings?

No. Printers you own cannot join the agreement.

Each office is supplied a printer under it.

Ask in writing who sets your approved configuration on each one.

#### Who comes out when a branch printer fails?

An authorised dealer or the manufacturer.

A technician is generally on site within 4 hours in a capital city.

Regional towns generally get a visit the next business day.

#### Is a wireless office printer secure?

Only as secure as its settings.

Switch off the wireless features an office does not use, and change the default password.

Then write the wireless setting into the approved configuration for every site.

### One checklist, every printer

Say how many offices hold a printer.

### Which offices, and which printer settings must match

List your offices and devices.

Add the settings your security team checks at each site.

Operated by Global Document Solutions, an authorised Kyocera partner.

Keep reading

- Count printers first
- Kyocera on one agreement