Christian Slater explains printer vulnerabilities
October 11, 2018
Christian Slater.
The star of Mr. Robot, Archer, and Heathers has appeared in a new video for HP, in which he explains how printers can be a cybersecurity weak link.
Forbes reports that the twenty-minute short film, also starring Breaking Bad’s Jonathan Banks, shows how personal data, such as health records, or even access codes to air traffic control, can be obtained by hackers entering your network via an unsecured printer.
The film – entitled The Wolf: True Alpha – is given additional Hollywood star power with the direction of Lost In Translation cinematographer Lance Acord; Slater appears in the title role, as he copes with the consequences of an attack on an unsecured printer, and the resultant global security threats. It follows two previous short films, The Wolf and The Wolf: Hunt Continues, which were released online by the OEM last year.
Data gathered by Quocirca in 2017, following a survey of 200 companies across the USA and Europe, revealed that over half had experienced data loss due to printer vulnerabilities; the main loss was due to print jobs being digitally intercepted by hackers, with the second most common occurrence being documents that were mailed to external sources, via a compromised printer.
HP’s Chief Technologiest of Print Security, Shivaun Albright, said that printers have become more powerful in recent years, in terms of storage and processing power. “However,” Albright added, “we haven’t reached awareness to secure print devices, and all the good security practices that are employed to protect other devices are not being deployed with consistency to printers. Printers tend to be overlooked as being part of the overall IT security policy, yet these devices can put a customer’s network at risk if not secured properly.”
Forbes further reports that the cost of cybercrime damage will hit $6 trillion (€5.18 trillion) by 2021, with Cybersecurity Ventures forecasting that cybersecurity spending globally will reach $114 billion (€98.51 billion) this year.
Categories : Around the Industry
Tags : Cybercrime Cybersecurity Hacking HP Printers
