Imagine being robbed…because of your printer. Unfortunately, that scenario played out in real life for an undisclosed number of victims collectively robbed of nearly $1 million worth of Bitcoin due to malware hidden in a manufacturer’s print driver.
From October 2024 through May 2025 users who installed drivers from Procolored (a specialty inkjet printer manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China) were unknowingly installing cryptocurrency-stealing malware.
The issue was discovered by a tech hobbyist who contacted Procolored’s customer service. After initially denying the malware’s existence in their software, they ultimately acknowledged that unbeknownst to them, 39 of their files had been infected.
This episode underscores the potential vulnerability to supply chain attacks of printing equipment and the software associated with them. In addition to the drivers used to operate printers, the devices themselves are network endpoints subject to compromise.
While printers are often overlooked in cybersecurity strategies, it is important to remember that estimates indicate that up to 90% of successful breaches begin with network endpoints.
It has been proven that if documents infected with malware are sent to printers, they can end up giving an outside attacker remote privileged access to the device.
Once this foothold is established inside a corporate network, the attacker can move laterally to infect more devices to further entrench themselves while carrying out any number of nefarious activities.
One aspect of printers that makes them particularly subject to supply chain attacks is the periodic replacement of ink and toner cartridges. These cartridges have chips in them that allow them to communicate with the printer.
White hat hackers have demonstrated the ability to inject malware into certain toner chips that can execute upon installation and exploit known vulnerabilities to give them remote control of the printer.
The lesson here is to consider the security posture of your supply chain providers for the printing hardware, software and consumables. Using the low-cost provider for any of these could prove catastrophically costly if a breach occurs.
As organizations embracing Zero Trust principles for their security posture know, the possibility of a breach should be viewed as an eventuality instead of a possibility.
The question of printers and cybersecurity not only includes preventing a breach with security first practices in procurement and firmware patch management to address known vulnerabilities, but mitigating the fallout when one does occur.
Today’s best-in-class security features can both minimize the possibility of a breach and stop malware from spreading with EDR-like capabilities that allow for self-healing. These are features that simply did not exist in the past when many organizations’ current printers were made.
Technology keeps evolving and the AI era is no longer the future, but the present. The capabilities of attackers to find the weakest link in your defenses is growing by the day. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that leaders in the print industry are also leveraging AI to enhance their protections to the point that some can even identify zero day attacks.
Managed Print Services providers have been long been offering print assessments focused on improving financial and workflow efficiencies. What they have not typically included is a focus on security, but in the era of AI that must be viewed as a necessity.
Securing your network through strategic endpoint security doesn't have to cause headaches. If you're interested in leveling up your printer security, get in touch with one of Usherwood's print experts by clicking the button below.