Best practices for securing an enterprise printer fleet

As enterprise print environments grow more advanced, so does the urgency to protect every endpoint ― especially within today’s complex, network connected ecosystems. Fleet devices routinely process confidential material, retain sensitive data and interface with core systems. Quite simply, ensuring every printer is fully secured is no longer optional.

According to Quocirca’s Print Security Landscape, 2025, 56% of organizations that were surveyed have experienced at least one data breach related to the print environment, leading to an average print data breach cost of over $1 million while the majority of respondents (83%) anticipate increasing print security spend over the next 12 months. ¹

A modern enterprise print program should align to zero trust, support cloud and hybrid printing, address legacy server risk, meet evolving compliance obligations, validate device integrity, and automate configuration enforcement — all without disrupting users.

Below are the top seven best practices for enterprise fleets.

1. Apply zero trust principles across devices and paths trust principles

The time is now to implement zero-trust, if you haven’t started already.

Gartner® explains: “A zero-trust architecture removes implicit trust (e.g., ‘This user is inside my security perimeter’) and replaces it with adaptive, explicit trust (e.g., ‘This user is authenticated with multifactor authentication from a corporate laptop with a functioning security suite’). Thus, a zero-trust approach requires a fundamental transformation of an organization’s security mindset and culture.” ²

Printers should be treated as first-class endpoints. Emphasize the zero trust model across your enterprise print infrastructure — continuous verification, least privilege access and strong segmentation — because attack automation and AI-assisted discovery are expanding the threat surface.

Organizations should also consider taking these precautions as part of a zero-trust initiative:

• Segment devices on dedicated VLANs

• Restrict inbound and outbound printing with firewall rules

• Disable legacy protocols

• Enforce strong admin credentials

• Require certificate-based management access

• Extend zero-trust to print paths and control planes, including enforcing TLS for IPP and admin consoles, requiring secure print release, and using SSO and MFA to check identities

2. Cloud and hybrid printing — secured design and remote governance

Cloud-based print management is a major modernization path as it relates to security. However, it must be implemented with explicit verification and consistent encryption that aligns with zero trust goals. Some of our top cloud and hybrid printing solutions include:

• IoT Command Center — Enable real-time problem detection, resolution and actionable insights from connected devices with an all-in-one device-agnostic platform.

• RICOH CloudStream — Streamline print, scan and device management with a flexible cloud-based platform.

• RICOH Streamline NX — Simplify device management, printing, scanning, and critical service alerts with a scalable integrated platform solution.

For remote printing, formalizing your policy ― as part of your information governance strategy ― is a must. It should cover if remote printing is permitted, an approval process, and handling, storage and disposal requirements for printed materials outside controlled spaces. Ensure devices are secured by design and can integrate with your intelligent document processing (IDP) solution.

Cloud solutions make printing easier, safer, and more consistent for distributed teams while reducing IT overhead. Encrypted jobs, user authentication, and detailed logs help prevent accidental exposure and support audit needs. Additionally, cloud-based queues also simplify onboarding and offboarding for hybrid and remote workers. With the right cloud solutions and policies in place, employees can print from any device.

Read more in this an article with tips on "Enabling remote workers with secured print services" >

3. Address legacy server risk and modernize the architecture

It’s time to bring legacy print servers into the modern-day era to align with zero-trust initiatives. Older devices are often ridden with challenges:

• They lack the embedded security found in modern printers, making them more vulnerable to low-level attacks and firmware manipulation

• Many don’t support advanced network protections, which makes proper segmentation and isolation difficult

• Limited patching and unfixable end-of-life models leave known vulnerabilities

• Inadequate or nonexistent authentication also increases the risk of uncollected sensitive documents and unauthorized access

Consider an enterprise print infrastructure transition plan that reduces or eliminates server dependency, such as cloud print management, driverless printing, or directIP with strong identity controls and segmentation.

4. Account for emerging threats — AI and postquantum considerations

Recent research highlights a growing gap for mixed fleets and older devices that lack secured boot, hardware roots of trust and consistent patching.

Combined with AI-assisted attacker sophistication, these types of multi-brand print ecosystems have become more attractive footholds for lateral movement and credential theft. This can worsen with quantum computing, which can break encryption and compromise digital signatures and identity verification if used by bad actors.

In a recent report by Quocirca, they found, “Overall, 40% of respondents are extremely or very concerned about the risks presented by AI, with 86% stating that it is either very or somewhat important that vendors use AI and machine learning (ML) in identifying and managing security risks in the print environment. 66% also state that it is either extremely or very relevant that they look to OEMs to develop quantum-resistant print devices, and that they would then want to adopt these within their print environment.” ³

The data suggests that the growing concern with AI and quantum computing are potential threats for cyberattacks, but also necessary to protect enterprise print infrastructure.

Therefore, consider and prioritize devices and brands that are designed with security embedded and transparent firmware supply chain assurances throughout its lifecycle. Where replacement isn’t immediate, we recommend hardening configurations, locking management paths behind certificates, and increasing monitoring for anomaly detection.

5. Meet evolving compliance and privacy requirements

Compliance frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GLBA, and FERPA, among others, demand controls over data and how it flows, including printed output in hybrid and cloud contexts.

Select cloud print platforms and management tools that document encryption, data residency, auditability, and administrative access controls to support regulatory reviews.

6. Strengthen device identity and firmware assurance

Move beyond user identity (implement PINs, smart cards, biometrics, or single sign-on) to device identity. As you look to modernize your fleet, device identity can provide:

• Certificate-based trust for printer management and queue registration

• Safeguard boot or firmware verification where available

• Platforms that support self-healing configurations to remediate unauthorized changes

• Support OAuth 2.0 authorization for scan‑to‑email and scan‑to‑cloud workflows

Older devices in multivendor fleets often lack these capabilities, increasing risk and management overhead — another reason to standardize models and phase out end-of-life hardware in your enterprise print infrastructure.

7. Automate configuration, compliance and fleet operations

Automation is now a core requirement. One of the many benefits of modern automation solutions is that they are designed and built with security as a default.

Evaluate using printers that push golden image configurations (IT teams use these to quickly deploy consistent and secured systems across multiple devices). Automation can also verify policy compliance continuously, orchestrate firmware updates and find exceptions on a single dashboard ― saving time and manual effort while boosting security.

Learn more about process automation here >

A practical roadmap you can execute this quarter

It’s time for action. Add these to your check list as your look at your enterprise print infrastructure:

1. Baseline and segmentation — inventory all devices, apply a hardened baseline and isolate printers on dedicated VLANs with tight rules

2. Identity and access — integrate SSO, enable MFA for high-risk workflows and require certificates for admin consoles and queue trust

3. Data path protection — enforce end-to-end TLS, enable storage encryption, require secure print release on shared devices, and auto-purge unreleased jobs

4. Monitoring and response — forward logs to SIEM, normalize events/issues, alert on protocol changes, firmware rollbacks and unauthenticated releases, and publish runbooks (IT policies)

5. Patching and architectural modernization — establish test-then-deploy rings for firmware and drivers, plan to reduce print server dependency and evaluate driverless or direct IP models

6. Lifecycle and compliance — formalize remote print policies, sanitize storage at decommission, maintain audit artifacts, and align cloud services with compliance and regulatory mandates

7. Automation — adopt tools that enforce configuration baselines, monitor compliance continuously and orchestrate updates

Let’s get started

A secured enterprise print infrastructure blends zero trust design, identity controls, encrypted data paths, lifecycle governance and automation ― with dedicated rigor and continuous monitoring. Add a modernization plan for legacy servers, a formal remote print policy for hybrid work and device level integrity assurances to defend against accelerated AI and quantum computing threats.

It’s also important to integrate your print environment into your broader security program and build a culture of user awareness and training. The result is a predictable, auditable and efficient print environment that supports business needs without increasing risk.

If you’re looking for guidance or to offload the task before you, Ricoh offers Intelligent Managed Print Services. And, we’d love to help.