Paper beats high-tech security threats

ED RICHARDSON
FORGET VIRUSES, hackers and other high-tech risks, one of the biggest security threats facing businesses is via the age-old medium of paper, according to research by printer manufacturer Lexmark. The study of over 1 000 office workers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) found that: • A quarter (25%) of professional office workers leave confidential papers open on their desks. • The printer tray is a major security weakness. Nearly half (49%) of documents left there contain sensitive or confidential company or employee information • Almost one in ten workers (8%) say they look through colleagues’ documents on the printer tray • Almost one in ten (7%) of office workers say they generally bury sensitive or confidential documents under other paperwork on their desks rather than shredding them The lack of good practice in paper security is all the more alarming given that a third (33%) of EMEA office workers rate paper documents as more powerful and authoritative than email or telephone communication, according to Eamon Ryan, vice president and general manager of Lexmark EMEA. One of the solutions introduced by Lexmark is a confidential print feature which requires employees to enter a PIN number to retrieve a document from the printer.