eWeek Forgets the Best Way to Secure a Printer is to Not Use One

eWeek, the leading IT journal, recently posted an item detailing 20 steps for improving printer security. As the author M. David Stone notes:

Printers can compromise your information with hard disks that hold on to data after printing or scanning, fax features that can send to anyone and documents left sitting in output bins for anyone to see. And that's just a partial list.

If you're not nervous about the security risk presented by printers, you should be. Stone walks through a list of extremely complex ways to potentially make printers more secure such as encrypting the hard drive or attempting to use biometrics. Such measure may control who can print, but do nothing about the problem of documents sitting around on the printers waiting to walk off.

What eWeek misses completely is that the only true way to ensure printer security is to not use printers and paper-based processes in the first place - or at least reduce their use significantly.This is especially true for sensitive business-critical documents such as contracts and agreements.  In such cases, the largest and most urgent reason these documents are printed is to get wet-ink signatures, and then to store these paper contracts. The problem begins when documents are converted to paper which is inherently unsafe, easy to lose, and can be easily modified without detection.

Clearly we can add printer security - or the lack thereof - as yet another compelling reason for the use of a good e-Signature process. As a Web-based enterprise-class eSignature service, with rigorous security and secure online storage included with every DocuSigned document, DocuSign delivers peace of mind that your documents are well-protected. You'll only find them on the printer if you choose to go that (antiquated) route.