The ICO (Information Commisioners Officer) is not holding back when it comes to mis-management of data security.
To quickly illustrate:-
A County Council had to pay £130,000 in December 2011 for a breach of data security relating to confidential child protection case details being inadvertently sent out in error.
In Scotland, a Council was fined £140,000 in January this year for disclosing sensitive personal data about children and their carers to the wrong personnel.
A Care Trust in the South-West was fined £175,000 in August for publishing personal details of staff on its website.
At the very heart of these breaches of data confidentiality was the “printer”; the piece of equipment we take for granted everyday when it comes to printing off emails and necessary information we need to record or refer to!
Printers and MFD’s represent a serious security risk.
How so?
In the case of the Welsh Council, the security breach was related to a mix-up at the printer because an unauthorised case worker had picked up confidential child case notes from the shared office printer and then sent them out as part of another report.
An easy mistake to make particularly when you have shared office printers, get distracted and forget until later to collect your printed documents.
Staff rummaging through the tray on the office printer to find the document they printed earlier is commonplace in most organisations.
But it can be an easy fix.
How? A quick installation of a simple but effective print management solution.
That is safe, secure, manageable and effortless.
Many Companies and Councils have basic print reporting software which lets them know how much toner and paper is being consumed but it doesn’t safe guard what and where it gets printed and by whom.
In a busy office, paper can pile up and by the time you go to collect your vital bits of information you find stacks of paper. Its easy for someone to collect their report or email or letter and inadvertently pick up the first few or the last page of what you sent to be printed.
Not having a secure print management solution in place can prove costly. What results is the document being printed again which is time consuming. In the case of the aforementioned Councils it can pose a data protection breach if the information is confidential and specific to an individual only.
Integrated, secure print management software ensures that the printed documents are secure and confidential until the user is ready to authorise and collect them.
By implementing a print management solution with networked printers and MFP’s (multi-functional devices) is the most secure and efficient way of ensuring organisations safe guard themselves against print and data security issues.
Print management solutions provide the tools you need as an organisation to manage a fleet of networked printers and the security of the documents printed.
Human intervention is the weakest link when there is no secure print management solution in place.
Automating manual processes ensures that an organisation can lock down data security throughout the document journey – from creation, sharing, distribution to storage and archiving.
Digital Print Management can advise specify and provide a range of secure document handling processes.
For more information please call on: 01234-271156 or drop us your details here and one of our expert advisors will contact you.
What information risks have you experienced?
Do you have a policy in your organisation to safe guard this happening? If so please tell us about it.
We are interested to hear and read your comments.
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Hey Caroline. It is really a useful and helpful information. Liked reading it. Thanks for the share. Your efforts are highly appreciated.