Printers Have Hard Drives

Offices print, fax, and scan countless documents; it is safe to say that some of that data is proprietary or at least is private/intended for a select few. Printers have hard drives that store everything that is printed, faxed, or scanned. If an IT department does not change the admin/default passwords; and, does not encrypt the data being sent to and from the printer, then the data is vulnerable. The FTC has general guidelines for users to follow including, overwriting and adding a pass code to access the hard drive; and, for entities to retain the hard drive after the printer is replaced.