PALO ALTO, Calif. October 17, 2007 -- HP today introduced an automated, comprehensive solution that enables the secure printing of sensitive documents in corporate and government networks.
Combining HP's strengths in imaging and printing as well as infrastructure security, HP Secure Print Advantage is the industry's first hardware-based security solution to minimize business risk by addressing printer security vulnerabilities across the disparate systems, servers and clients typical to most enterprise environments.
Unlike offerings from other vendors, the solution ensures that printing workflow management and single print jobs remain secure from the initial starting point at the desktop, to the server for verification, and back to the printer for completion -- without disruption to the printer network.
"HP Secure Print Advantage automates traditionally manual processes and delivers an industry first: consistent, comprehensive and enforceable security policy for the print infrastructure," said Chris Whitener, chief strategist, Secure Advantage, HP. "This solution provides the necessary automation and simplification of security tasks, like key management, to reduce the costs and burdens generally associated with them."
HP Secure Print Advantage is part of the HP Secure Advantage portfolio, which is designed to protect data and resources, validate regulatory compliance and optimize business risk management. Composed of servers, storage, software and services, the portfolio integrates security into the fabric of the IT environment to deliver a more adaptive infrastructure.
Minimizing business risk with proven security
HP Secure Print Advantage enables IT to automatically set and enforce policies across systems, applications and the print network. To safeguard against malicious attacks, the solution integrates the highest level of federal and international security assurances available in the market today -- both FIPS 140-2 Level 4 and Common Criteria EAL 4+ security technology -- into print environments.
"Printers are now often entry points into corporate and government networks for intrusions, data theft, denial-of-service attacks, viruses and worms, and yet are often overlooked as a security risk," said Chris Christiansen, program vice president, Security Products and Services Group, IDC. "Currently, vendors provide only point solutions for print security, and they lack the FIPS 140-2 Level 4 validation required by government customers to ensure the highest level of protection possible. HP Secure Print Advantage is positioned to address this gap in the market."
Customers can easily integrate HP Secure Print Advantage, which acts as an overlay to HP or heterogeneous print infrastructures, into their existing IT environments. The solution also prevents malware and viruses that can be embedded in document files from being spread to a company's network when printed.
The solution's backbone technologies deliver full encryption and policy controls with audit logging throughout the entire print lifecycle. Its secure document server receives a print job from an encrypting client module and it is inspected for malware within a secure hardware boundary. Then, based on the results of the inspection, the document is either terminated or re-encrypted and delivered to a secure print module for immediate printing.
When a document is intended for one or more recipients, it is sent to the Secure Document Server, where it is stored encrypted. The recipient must then present the necessary credentials at the printer in order to print the document. The Secure Print Advantage solution provides a flexible interface for user authentication at the printer or multi-function peripheral.
HP forms strategic partner program to foster security leadership
HP also announced the HP Secure Advantage Alliance Program to provide customers with choice and interoperability among security solutions and partners in order to best address specific security needs. The program will enable HP and its security partners, including Crossroads Systems, Ingrian and SenSage, to better support customer needs by developing joint solutions.
The new program allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to integrate with HP's broad security portfolio to build out unified security policy management, identity management, security log and event management, and enforcement and audit solutions, including encryption and key management capabilities. The program also will work to influence and support industry standards for key management and data encryption.
ISVs will gain access to systems and technical resources to integrate and test solutions with HP's enterprise platforms and the Secure Advantage portfolio to further enable data protection and compliance solutions that meet customers' business and regulatory requirements. HP and alliance partners will develop joint sales and go-to-market plans to leverage their integrated capabilities.
"Coupled with compliance demands, security is a fundamental necessity in today's enterprise," said Robert Sims, president and chief executive officer, Crossroads Systems, a Business Information Assurance solution provider based in Austin, Texas. "By bringing together industry leaders, the HP Secure Advantage Alliance Program will provide flexibility and choice for customers faced with increasing enterprise security and regulatory requirements."
More information about the HP Secure Print Advantage portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/spa. To learn more about HP Secure Advantage, visit www.hp.com/go/security.