Are Office Printers Vulnerable To Security Risks? The Dangers Of Unmanaged Printing

By Keeley Travis on Aug 20, 2026, 11:00:00 AM

When a business reviews its cybersecurity, the usual suspects get the attention. These include firewalls, endpoint protection on laptops, email filtering, and multi-factor authentication. The printer in the corner of the office, or the multi-function device shared across the floor, rarely makes the list. That oversight is increasingly costly.

Printers are networked endpoints. They connect to your IT infrastructure, process documents containing sensitive data, store files in internal memory, and, in many cases, communicate externally. Every one of those characteristics makes them a potential entry point for attackers, and yet the security measures applied to them lag far behind those applied to other devices on the same network. So, are office printers vulnerable to security risks​, and how can you keep your documents and your business secure?

The Scale Of The Problem

The numbers make uncomfortable reading for any IT manager who hasn't yet put printer security on their agenda.

Research has found that only 14% of employees who received cybersecurity training had any training specifically focused on printer security and how to keep documents secure. Nearly 29% of UK respondents said their businesses have no specific IT security measures in place for printers.

According to industry data, 68% of businesses have experienced data losses linked to printer security failures, and when those breaches do occur, they're expensive: Quocirca's 2024 Print Security Landscape report, cited by Industry Analysts, found that the average cost of a print-related breach now exceeds £1 million.

For an IT manager at a mid-sized business who has spent time and budget hardening other parts of the environment, these figures represent a significant, largely unaddressed exposure.

What An Unsecured Printer Actually Exposes

A networked printer or multi-function device presents several distinct vulnerabilities.

• Print queues hold documents waiting to be printed, often without encryption. If that queue is accessible on the network, or if jobs are pulled from cloud storage without adequate controls, sensitive documents can be intercepted before they're ever printed.

• Unencrypted data transmission is common on devices that haven't been properly configured. Data sent from a workstation to a printer travels across the network, and without encryption, that transmission can be intercepted by anyone with access to the network.

• Physical document exposure is the most low-tech risk, but it's real. Documents printed and left uncollected at a shared device are accessible to anyone who walks past. In offices where staff share devices across departments, that exposure extends across the organisation.

• Internal memory and storage are often overlooked issues. Many modern MFDs store copies of every document that passes through them. Without a secure data overwrite policy, that data remains accessible long after the job has been completed.

• Firmware vulnerabilities represent a further risk. Printers, like any networked device, receive firmware updates that patch known security weaknesses. Devices that haven't been updated are running with publicly known vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.

GDPR And Compliance Implications

For any business handling personal data, which in practice means almost every business, print security is a GDPR obligation, not just an IT preference.

The ICO's guidance on data protection makes clear that organisations must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data. A printer that stores document images, transmits data without encryption, or allows unauthorised access to print queues could make it harder to demonstrate that appropriate controls are in place. A breach that can be traced to inadequate printer security could raise difficult questions about whether the organisation had taken suitable protective measures.

The financial and reputational consequences of a notifiable breach, combined with potential ICO enforcement action, make the cost of addressing printer security in advance look very modest by comparison.

Why Managed Print Alone Doesn't Solve It

Managed print can play an important role in improving print security, but only when security is built into the service from the start. A basic print contract may focus on costs, maintenance and consumables, but a security-aware managed print provider should also consider device configuration, user access, firmware updates, secure print release and data handling.

Print security requires a deliberate focus on the security configuration of devices and the policies governing how they're used. That means selecting hardware with the right security capabilities built in, configuring those capabilities correctly during deployment, and keeping devices updated and monitored on an ongoing basis.

Getting this right requires an adviser who understands both the security landscape and the print environment, not just one or the other.

Prevention Is Considerably Cheaper Than Response

The cost of a print-related breach that exposes personal data, triggers an ICO investigation, and generates the operational disruption of incident response is a lot higher than the cost of properly securing a print environment.

The question for any IT manager reviewing their organisation's security posture isn't whether printer security is worth addressing. It's whether the current environment has already left the door open.

Is your printing environment as secure as it should be? A free print audit will show you exactly where the vulnerabilities are before they become a problem. Contact the team today to arrange yours.

Image Source: Envato