Printing: the underdog in protecting data for GDPR compliance

Protecting (sensitive) data is a hot topic, one that is not likely to move out of the spotlight any time soon. Last year, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) statute was introduced to great anticipation. If you search Google for that term, you will get 400 million results. Yet despite the volume of information about the topic, market intelligence firm IDC concluded that many organizations did not think that printing played an important role in becoming GDPR compliant.

This is ironic, as a search on the phrase ‘GDPR printing’ yields nearly 37 million results.

As the market leader in providing secure printing solutions to large enterprises, LRS is dedicated to providing information that will help make printing processes GDPR compliant. Our site www.lrsoutputmanagement.com/secure-printing describes each area where data might be exposed throughout the printing process and explains how this exposure may be prevented. Naturally, secure pull printing is one way to protect data, but auditing and encryption also play a role.

The Austrian institute Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Datenverarbeitung (Work Group for Data Processing) offered some interesting perspectives on protecting data while printing, even describing the severity of a violation. Failing to properly protect data can result in high fines, and can even completely shut down all IT operations. [Download a copy of the article here].

So how can we help organizations that remain unaware of potential GDPR violations linked to printing? LRS has started a series of awareness programs and is working with a network of partners to help increase awareness of protecting data while printing. Articles such as the one created by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Datenverarbeitung help spread that message. If you want to help us get the word out, please share this article. Protecting data is not just the responsibility of a select few. We are all tasked with making sure that every aspect of our organization is covered when it comes to data security.