Secure Internet Printing without VPN
ThinPrint enables secure Internet printing without VPN
How safe is internet printing ?
Online security and protection of data are hot button topics for everybody in today’s networked society. Already in 2016 we have seen a number of major security breaches with large volumes of private data being stolen through targeted, hostile attacks – most recently the loss of 500 million private users’ details by Yahoo!. As more of our professional life is carried out across the internet, the impact that these security breaches can have on corporations, organisations, and private individuals can only increase. Most often, the lost data is basic identity information, such as emails, accounts, and logins. But what happens when reports, business plans, and accounting information is compromised? This is one of the main concerns for organisations which prevents them from making full use of the ability to print over the internet.
Sending tasks to print over the internet can be problematic for any organisation. Existing solutions can be expensive, and difficult to install alongside running services and security measures. And this becomes an even greater challenge when privacy is a central concern. Sending jobs to print over the internet naturally exposes potentially sensitive data to security breaches and interception. Until now, the methods that many organisations have worked around this issue have proven time-consuming, inefficient, and costly: requiring virtual private networks (VPNs) and pre-allocated security permissions to circumnavigate firewalls. However, ThinPrint has devised a solution for remote printing tasks that allows total fidelity of connections and security of data.
ThinPrint Secure Tunnel: Addressing the need for secure, online printing solutions
That is why the ThinPrint Secure Print Tunnel is such an elegant solution to a growing logistical problem. Unlike the majority of printing solutions, the direction of communication used by the ThinPrint Connection Service is reversed: that is to say, it is the remote client, situated in any branch office or offsite location, which creates the connection to the ThinPrint system in the data centre. In this way, the server-side ThinPrint engine operating at the hub will never be required to learn the IP addresses of the individually networked printers. Therefore, IT security managers will have no difficulties installing the ThinPrint client, while maintaining existing security suites and firewall configurations.
The ThinPrint Secure Tunnel is therefore able to deliver remote printing tasks directly to individual branch offices, across the internet – either from the data centre, or from other branches. Tasks are sent and received only by the ThinPrint client in each location, so a direct connection from the server-side hub, to the local branch print need never be established. Each communication utilises advanced SSL encryption to ensure data fidelity. ThinPrint’s Secure Tunnel is the ideal DMZ solution for printing tasks in a modern, corporate environment.
Using the ThinPrint Secure Tunnel in real world situations
The ThinPrint Secure Tunnel technology is a considerable improvement over existing systems, and its real world applications can help to revolutionize the way printing tasks are completed in many industries.
Consider a situation where documentation has to be transferred to a printer within a de-central location, but whose origins are at risk of compromise, or a targeted attack from an outside party. In the modern world, it is a situation that will be familiar to news gatherers, to diplomatic and aid workers, and to those operating in any field with a close political connection. But, increasingly, it is a situation that affects every corporate entity, too: whose own sensitive data and work has to be shared and deliverable to remote locations at a moment’s notice, but also requires a rigorously high level of protection against loss or breaches of security.
