The hidden cybersecurity risk sitting in every SMB office

For many small and medium-sized businesses, cybersecurity conversations center on endpoints like laptops, servers and cloud platforms.

Yet one category of device continues to sit quietly outside that focus: the printer.

Despite being deeply embedded in day-to-day operations and handling highly sensitive information, print infrastructure is still widely overlooked.

This lack of scrutiny is part of a broader challenge. New research shows 73% of UK SMBs fear data privacy issues in their current document management processes, highlighting widespread concern about how sensitive information is handled across both digital and physical workflows.

Yet 55% of UK SMBs consider printers a low priority in their cybersecurity strategy.

This worrying disconnect between the critical data printers handle and their low security prioritization creates a vulnerability that attackers can exploit to access sensitive workflows, intercept documents or move laterally within a network.

A growing blind spot in hybrid working environments

As we know, work no longer sits neatly inside the office. It happens across home networks, personal devices and shared spaces – environments that SMBs struggle to monitor or control. Today, print and scan workflows routinely handle sensitive data, from payroll and contracts to customer records.

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Without visibility into who is printing what and where, organizations have no way of protecting that sensitive data. And it doesn’t take much – just one misdirected scan or a print job left in a tray can expose confidential information, often without any obvious sign that something is wrong.

According to Quocirca, 74% of SMBs have experienced a print-related data loss incident in the past year. A further 33% say documents printed on employee-owned home printers are now a top factor in data loss.

Behavioral factors further amplify the problem. Research shows 47% of UK SMBs believe that employees try to bypass their organization's print security guidelines. At the same time, 63% assume their printers are secure because they sit behind a firewall, and half do not consider them a security threat at all.

Together, these trends point to a clear security gap: while print workflows are handling increasingly sensitive data across distributed environments, they are not being secured, monitored or governed to the same standard as other endpoints.

Real risk in outdated hardware

Almost three-quarters (73%) of UK SMBs frequently worry about the risk posed by their outdated systems. Older printers running unpatched firmware and default credentials quietly process and store sensitive data while remaining unmanaged.

A compromised printer can serve as an entry point into wider business systems. If laptops and servers require active monitoring, printers do too.

Concerns are not limited to hardware. They also span cybersecurity exposures linked to connected printers, vulnerabilities introduced as scanned documents move through the cloud, and the risk of unauthorized access to print queues.

Alongside this are more visible, day-to-day issues, such as confidential documents being left unattended and the difficulty of tracking information once it exists in physical form.

These risks can be managed, but only if SMBs treat print and scan as part of the security perimeter.

Without this, resilience across hybrid workflows becomes guesswork. The future of work is not only about cloud and AI; it is also about securing the everyday document processes that move sensitive data across physical and digital environments.

Building control through visibility and smarter printing

Despite low prioritization, almost six-in-ten (63%) SMBs in the UK acknowledge print security needs improvement. To secure the future of work, organizations need secure print hardware foundations and protection that keeps pace with evolving threats.

Smart printing builds on these secure hardware foundations by embedding visibility, policy enforcement and audit trails directly into print and scan workflows.

Of UK SMBs that have adopted smart printing, 89% say it provides clearer visibility into printing and scanning activity across users and locations, 86% say it helps them meet compliance and security standards, and 85% say it improves enforcement of rules and restrictions.

Rethinking the role of print in cybersecurity

As we delve deeper into the future of work, printers need to be brought into the wider security strategy. A data breach originating from a printer can be just as damaging as one involving a compromised device or network, with the potential for significant financial loss, regulatory penalties and reputational harm.

Printers are not just office equipment. They are part of the digital infrastructure that supports modern work. As print and scan workflows become more digital and cloud-connected, printers deserve the same security attention as any other endpoint.

In practice, that means SMBs need three things: secure hardware as a foundation, security that keeps pace with new threats, and the visibility and control to maintain resilience at scale. Bringing printers into the security strategy is a practical step towards protecting sensitive data in a world where both work and risk are distributed.

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