By Jon Reardon, InfoTrends, Guest Blogger
We all know people who send personal information from their workplace computers. Maybe you’ve done it. It’s not always easy to separate work from personal life.
Take Valentine’s Day as the example. Today is a day when you realize how widespread the use of personal devices in the workplace has become. As employees are busy sending sweet messages to their loved ones via handheld devices, tablets, webcams, even printers, copiers or multifunction devices, the truth is that company data may be at risk.
These embedded devices, as we at InfoTrends would call them, contain computers, making them susceptible to security vulnerabilities. The number one concern expressed by CIOs, directors of IT and line of business senior managers we surveyed late last year was “security” followed very closely by “mobility.” What we continue to hear from our ongoing dialogue with business leaders, echoed in boardrooms across the country I’m sure – are questions around… is my corporate network at risk? Do I have the right security and IT policies in place – and are people following them?
The good news is that these questions are being asked. The better news is there is now a comprehensive way to secure these devices. Xerox and McAfee have teamed up to create a solution that takes care of a whole category of devices often overlooked as a security risk – printers, copiers, fax machines and multifunction devices. And while Xerox has been thinking about and securing these devices for years, McAfee will help them take their technology to the next level.
These respective leaders in their segments plan to join forces to add whitelisting technology to these devices for the first time. This means that instead of having to know what viruses and malware you are blocking (blacklisting), you’ll have built-in protection that only allows approved files to run.
It’s exciting to see Xerox bring this level of technology into these devices; to have the printer world lead the way into embedded device protection. And it’s critical to Xerox’s security strategy as they work with partners like McAfee and Cisco to ensure that customers are protected from the device, through the network, and throughout the entire business process. As more and more companies host data in the cloud, or outsource functions of their business to boost efficiency – Xerox is making sure these organizations have secured information internally and on all sides of the transaction, powerfully mitigating the risk of compromised data.
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The content shared in this blog post is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox.
