ID: IRCNE2014032135
Date: 2013-03-18
According to "computerworld", using mobile devices for one-off printing tasks on office printers may not be a big deal, but Hewlett-Packard is trying to mitigate any security risk through direct wireless printing features it is bringing to enterprise printers.
HP is adding NFC (near-field communication) and Wi-Fi Direct to its new color LaserJet printers so mobile devices can establish a wireless connection directly to a printer without being logged into an office network. The printer establishes a peer-to-peer connection to tablets or smartphones, and users can send a print command direct to a printer within proximity.
The goal is to provide everyone in an office easy access to a printer, and keep rogue smartphones and tablets from a corporate network, said Todd Gregory, director at HP's Personal and Printing Systems group.
Increasingly, office printers are being used to print personal documents, but rogue devices can be a security hazard in bring-your-own-device environments, Gregory said. The new peer-to-peer printing features can make BYOD environments easier to manage while ensuring document security on corporate networks.
Many printers are usually connected behind a firewall to the document workflow system, with security measures in place to print and access documents. A direct connection to printers through NFC or Wi-Fi Direct is independent of the firewall, and also spares system administrators from putting permissions in place in mobile-device-management software.
HP is also offering software to secure printing. HP announced the ePrint Enterprise 3.2 app for mobile devices, which adds security layers before users are allowed to print either through a peer-to-peer connection or over a Wi-Fi network.
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