Protect printers from malicious printing

The information below was sent to the IT Security Community and Frontline Notify groups on March 25, 2016.

Some U-M units have experienced problems recently with printers being hijacked to print numerous pages of gibberish or to print offensive materials.

We have published Network Printing Best Practices to help printer administrators protect university printers from malicious printing.

The most effective thing you can do is limit your printer's Internet connectivity:

• Printers and other devices that do not require Internet connectivity should be placed in private IP space. ITS Networking and Telecommunications provides guidance for Assigning Private IP Network Numbers.
• Devices that require connectivity to the Internet should be configured to only allow connection to necessary services.

If you are responsible for U-M printers, please implement the best practices to protect them. If you have questions, contact the ITS Service Center.