A while back we reported that a group of researchers discovered a security flaw in HP’s LaserJet printers that basically allowed hackers access to it. According to HP, so far there have been no reports of users ever experiencing such issues with their printers but at the same time have acknowledged that such a potential security vulnerability does exist but only if left open on a public internet with no firewall, or if a trusted user modified the firmware while on a private network. Either way a firmware upgrade was reportedly in the works, and the good news is that HP has since released the firmware upgrade to address this issue.
“HP has built a firmware update to mitigate this issue and is communicating this proactively to customers and partners. No customer has reported unauthorized access to HP. HP reiterates its recommendation to follow best practices for securing devices by placing printers behind a firewall and, where possible, disabling remote firmware upload on exposed printers.
The firmware update can be found at www.hp.com/support and selecting Drivers.
Additional printer security information is available at www.hp.com/go/secureprinting.”
So if you own a HP LaserJet and you’d like to make the upgrade just to be safe, head on down to HP’s Support page for the downloads, or you can hop on over to their Secure Printing page for more information on keeping your printed documents safe.