Like anything, remote printing can be secure, but it depends on how your print jobs, users, devices and printers are protected. Things like unencrypted data, unsecured BYOD devices, and even documents left in random printer trays all create risk. The good news is that alleviating that risk isn’t particularly difficult.
A secure remote printing environment uses encryption, strong authentication policies, access controls and zero-trust principles to protect your documents, all the way from submission through to release.
What is remote printing?
Remote printing is simply the ability to send a print job to a printer from outside the printer’s local network. Usually that means from home or another office, or even a mobile device. Remote printing basically allows hybrid and remote workers to print stuff without being physically connected to the printer or corporate network, making hybrid work print security a critical priority for IT teams.
Why is remote printing a security concern?
Remote printing should be on your security radar because hybrid work has expanded the traditional print environment way beyond what employers initially imagined. Now, remote workers are effectively extending the printing environment beyond your organization’s network, creating possible new vectors for attack.
Here are just some of the common concerns with remote printing security:
- Unencrypted print data: Print jobs travelling across networks without proper encryption are vulnerable to interception.
- Unsecured remote devices: Personal devices and unmanaged endpoints usually don’t have the same security controls as standard-issue corporate devices.
- Unprotected printers: Don’t forget, networked printers are endpoints too! They store, process and transmit sensitive information every single day.
- Physical document exposure: If a confidential document is sitting uncollected in a paper tray, then it’s not particularly confidential anymore.
- Weak authentication: The basic rule is anyone with network access shouldn’t be able to just print to any device. You want to segment access according to user ID or role.
- Limited print visibility: Without logging and monitoring, IT teams have very little insight into who printed sensitive information, or when or where they did it.
When it comes to remote printing, secure print release and end-to-end encryption can work well as baseline defence. After that, you can add other best-practice measures, like access controls, network segmentation and regular patching.
How can you secure remote printing?
A secure remote printing environment should protect the entire print workflow, rather than simply relying on a VPN moat, or secure office network. From the moment someone clicks ‘Print’ to the moment that document is in their hand, every stage of that journey needs overlapping, integrated, redundant layers of protection.
1. Encrypt your print data
Every remote print job bounces between a user’s device, a printer server or cloud service, and your organization’s print infrastructure. Each of those connections needs strong encrypted transport protocol. You may be familiar with HTTPS which uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt web traffic. In much the same way, IPPS (Internet Printing Protocol Secure) uses TLS to secure print data while it’s moving between systems. TLS 1.3 is the latest version of TLS and is generally preferred where supported, offering stronger security and a more efficient handshake than previous versions. But encryption should also be considered for stored or queued print jobs (what we call documents ‘at rest’).
This is especially important when it comes to secure cloud printing, where data travels outside your organization’s network and may temporarily be stored on a cloud server.
The important principle is not to assume a print job is safe simply because it eventually reaches a printer inside the corporate network. Print data needs to be protected throughout its journey, whether it’s being transmitted between systems or sitting in a print queue.
2. Roll out Secure Print Release
Encryption protects the data on its way to the printer. Secure Print Release protects the physical document. So instead of sending a job straight to the output tray, a print management system (like PaperCut) holds it in a secure queue. The user then authenticates at the printer itself, usually with a PIN, ID card, mobile device or another approved method. Only then does the document get released.
Secure Print Release is what prevents sensitive documents from being left unattended in paper trays. It also helps to make sure that the person collecting the document is the same person who submitted it.
3. Apply zero-trust principles to printing
Zero Trust Print Security means not automatically trusting a user, device or connection simply because it’s inside a particular network. Basically, trust no-one (until they’ve proven themselves trustworthy).
NIST’s own Zero Trust Architecture framework actually addresses environments with remote users and BYOD devices, and it recommends moving security controls away from assumptions based on network location and towards verified user identities.
In printing terms, this means:
Traditional approach |
Zero-trust print approach |
Trust devices on the corporate network |
Verify users and devices before granting access |
Send jobs directly to printers |
Hold jobs until authenticated release |
Trust internal network traffic |
Encrypt all print communications |
Give broad printer access |
Apply strict role-based permissions |
Limited print visibility |
Full print logging and monitoring |
Secure the office perimeter |
Secure each print resource |
The old moat model is dead. In an ideal world, Zero Trust is built into your print architecture, so that every printer, every print job and every user gets treated as what they actually are: security resources that require verification.
Learn more about PaperCut’s approach to zero-trust print security
Remote printing security FAQs
Is remote printing secure without a VPN?
It can be…up to a point. A VPN can encrypt traffic between the remote device and the print network, but it’s no substitute for proper authentication, user access controls, and encryption of the entire print workflow.
Is mobile printing secure?
Like anything, mobile printing is as secure as you make it. If the mobile device, network connection and print workflow are properly configured, it should be no less safe than printing internally.
Is BYOD printing a security risk?
Again, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Personal devices may not have the same endpoint management, patching or security controls as corporate-issued ones, but a good BYOD policy takes all that into consideration.
You need to define which devices and users can print, how they authenticate, what printers they can access, and how print jobs are protected in transit. Ideally, remote users should be able to print stuff without getting anywhere near the wider corporate network. Check out network segmentation for more info.
Can I securely print from home to an office printer?
Absolutely! Securely printing at home to an office printer is possible provided the remote print system protects the job while it travels and controls its release. The key controls here are encrypted transmission, authenticated access, secure print queues, and appropriate logging.
Should remote print jobs be logged?
It’s good practice to log print jobs, particularly those relating to sensitive documents. Print logging gives IT and security teams visibility into printing activity, including who printed, what was printed, as well as where and when it happened. This data can support security investigations, compliance requirements and ongoing policy reviews.
How to improve remote printing security
For most organizations, this is going to be your practical starting point:
- Audit your current print workflow and figure out exactly where your data travels.
- Encrypt print traffic between users, cloud services and your print infrastructure.
- Require authentication before documents are released.
- Use least-privilege access controls, so users only access the printers they actually need.
- Segment printer networks (where appropriate) to reduce the fallout from one compromised device.
- Patch printers, print servers and endpoints regularly.
- Enable print logging and monitoring, so any unusual activity can be spotted early.
- Review BYOD and remote-print policies to make sure they align with your broader security posture.
The result is a print environment designed around verification, rather than assumptions. So no matter where a user prints from, or what device they use to do it, every stage of that print journey remains secure.
In some ways, the bigger shift is how you actually think about printing.
Printing should be treated as part of your organization’s overall security environment – not some weird, vestigial organ from the late 90s. That’s the whole idea behind zero-trust printing: verify the user, protect the data and control the document at every stage.
Which print management solution is right for me? Good question! Check out PaperCut’s various products, or give us a call and we’ll tailor a solution to fit your needs.
