Can hackers get into a network through a printer or copier?

Yes, it's possible — though it's not the most likely entry point, which remains employees clicking malicious links. A modern MFP is a networked computer with a hard drive, operating system, and web server. Real-world compromises follow preventable patterns: unchanged default admin passwords, devices reachable from the internet, and firmware past the manufacturer's support. Once compromised, the device is a trusted, unmonitored foothold holding email credentials and the company address book.

What data is stored on a copier's hard drive?

Depending on model and settings: latent images of documents that were printed, copied, scanned, or faxed; the full scan-to-email address book of employees, clients, and vendors; stored working credentials for scan-to-email and scan-to-folder; network configuration; and held print jobs and user mailboxes.

How do I secure an office printer or MFP?

In priority order: change the default admin password on every device, keep firmware updated and retire devices past firmware support, ensure no print device is reachable from the internet, disable unused protocols and services, use a dedicated least-privilege account for scan-to-email, enable drive encryption and job-data clearing where supported, use PIN or badge release for sensitive output, and include printers in the IT asset inventory and patch process.

What happens to the data on a leased copier when it's returned?

Unless deliberately handled, the internal drive — with document images, address books, and stored credentials — leaves with the machine, often to a refurbisher or reseller. Before pickup, arrange certified data erasure with written documentation, or (for owned/high-sensitivity equipment, with the lessor's written agreement on leased devices) drive removal or destruction. Devices with drive encryption enabled from day one make end-of-life handling a formality. For regulated organizations, the erasure documentation serves as audit evidence.

Should printers and copiers be part of IT security?

Yes. MFPs are always-on, network-trusted computers that typically sit outside asset inventories, patch schedules, and monitoring. Whatever security process covers laptops and servers should include print devices — otherwise the largest computer in the building remains outside every protection the business has.

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ABT Guide · For Owners, Managers & IT

Your Copier Is a Computer: What's on Its Hard Drive, and Whether Hackers Can Get In Through It

We get this question constantly: "Can someone hack us through the copier?" The honest answer is yes, it's possible — no, it's not the most likely way in — and it's one of the cheapest doors to close. This guide covers both halves of MFP security: the network risk while the device is running, and the data risk when it leaves your office.

The Honest Answer What's on the Hard Drive How MFPs Get Compromised The Hardening Checklist When the Copier Leaves

Perspective First

Where the Copier Actually Ranks in Your Risk

Let's not oversell the threat: the most likely way into your business remains a person clicking a malicious link or approving a login they didn't start — which is why we wrote an entire employee security guide about exactly that. If you do only one security thing this quarter, do that one.

But here's why the copier question deserves a real answer instead of a shrug. A modern multifunction printer is a networked computer with a hard drive, an operating system, a web server, and standing credentials into your email system — that happens to be dressed as furniture. It's always on, trusted by every computer in the office, and watched by no one. Most businesses inventory their laptops and patch their servers while the largest computer in the building sits outside every security process they have.

And the two risks connect: what an attacker harvests from a neglected MFP — employee email addresses and working email credentials — is precisely the fuel for the phishing attacks that are your bigger threat. Securing the copier isn't a separate project from the human-layer work; it's cutting off a supply line.

The Part That Surprises People

What's Actually Stored on a Copier's Hard Drive

Office MFPs use internal storage as working memory — and depending on model, settings, and age, a lot of what passes through can stick around. On a typical business copier, the drive may hold:

Document Images

Latent copies of pages that were printed, copied, scanned, or faxed — on some configurations going back months or years. Contracts, payroll, medical forms, IDs: whatever went through the glass.

The Company Address Book

Every scan-to-email contact: names and email addresses for your staff, clients, and vendors — a ready-made phishing target list, pre-sorted by who works with whom.

Working Credentials

The email account and password the device uses for scan-to-email, and often network credentials for scan-to-folder destinations. These are live logins into your systems, stored in a device nobody audits.

Network Map & Stored Jobs

The device's network configuration, server addresses, held print jobs, and user mailboxes — a helpful sketch of your environment for anyone who shouldn't have one.

This is why the copier question has two halves. While the device runs, that data makes it a target worth protecting. When the device leaves — returned, traded in, sold, or scrapped — that data makes disposal a security event, not a logistics task.

The Network Question

How an MFP Becomes a Way In

MFP compromises in the real world are rarely exotic. They follow a few well-worn patterns — all of them preventable with configuration, not spending:

The Default Admin Password

The single most common issue we see. Every MFP has a web admin page, and it ships with a factory password that's printed in every manual on the internet. Never changed, it hands anyone on your network — or a bad actor who reaches the device — full control: settings, address book, stored credentials, everything.

Reachable From the Internet

Misconfigured networks sometimes leave printers answering to the outside world — and automated scanners find internet-exposed printers constantly, no targeting required. A printer should never be reachable from outside your network. Ever.

Firmware Past Its Expiration

Like any computer, MFPs get security patches — until the manufacturer stops issuing them. After that, every newly discovered vulnerability is permanent. An unpatchable device on the network is an accepted risk most companies never consciously accepted. (This is a heavyweight signal in our upgrade framework.)

The Trusted Pivot

Once compromised by any route, an MFP is a comfortable place for an attacker to sit: always powered on, trusted by everything, monitored by nothing. From there the play is harvesting the stored credentials and address book — the supply line into the phishing attacks your team faces next.

The Pattern Worth NoticingNone of these require a sophisticated adversary — they require a device that was installed, connected, and never thought about again. Which is also why the fix list below is short and mostly free.

The Fix List

The MFP Hardening Checklist

In priority order. The first three close the vast majority of real-world exposure, and an afternoon covers the whole list on a typical fleet.

01Change the admin password on every device's web admin page — today. Long, unique, stored in your password manager. This is the highest-value five minutes in this guide.
02Keep firmware current — and retire what can't be patched. Check for updates on a schedule (your service provider can own this), and treat end-of-firmware-support as a replacement trigger, not a footnote.
03Make sure no print device is reachable from the internet. Printers live behind the firewall, full stop. If remote printing is genuinely needed, it goes through a VPN or the manufacturer's secured cloud service — never an open port.
04Turn off what you don't use. MFPs ship with legacy protocols and services enabled (old file-sharing, remote-management, and transfer protocols). In the admin page, disable everything your office doesn't actually use — each one is a door, and most offices need only two or three.
05Give scan-to-email a least-privilege account. The device should authenticate as a dedicated, limited mailbox (scanner@) — never as an executive or admin account, so that if its stored credential is ever exposed, it unlocks almost nothing. (Our scan-to-email guide sets this up correctly from the start.)
06Enable storage encryption and end-of-job data clearing where the device supports them. Many business MFPs can encrypt the internal drive and overwrite job data after processing — settings that turn the entire end-of-life problem below into a non-event. If your devices predate these features, weigh that in the upgrade math.
07Use device authentication for sensitive environments. PIN or badge release ("pull printing") keeps confidential output from sitting in trays — the lowest-tech data leak there is, and a standard audit finding under HIPAA and similar obligations.
08Put printers in the IT inventory. Whatever process covers your laptops — asset list, patch schedule, monitoring — should list the MFPs too. Devices outside the process stay outside the protection.

The Other Half

Before the Copier Leaves: The Hard Drive Question

Every leased copier eventually goes back. Every owned copier eventually gets sold, traded in, or scrapped. And unless someone deliberately handled it, the drive full of document images, contacts, and credentials goes with it — often to a refurbisher, a reseller, or an auction lot.

The good news: this is a solved problem when it's handled before pickup day. The options, in the order to consider them:

ACertified data erasure. The device's storage is securely overwritten to recognized standards, with documentation stating what was erased, when, and how. This is the standard answer for leased equipment — the machine returns intact, the data doesn't.
BDrive removal or physical destruction. Appropriate for owned equipment being scrapped, or for high-sensitivity environments. On leased devices this requires the lessor's written agreement first — removing components from equipment you don't own can breach the lease, and improvised removal often misses secondary storage anyway. Coordinate it; don't freelance it.
CEncryption from day one. The elegant version: if the drive was encrypted throughout its life (checklist item 06), end-of-life handling becomes a formality — the data was never readable off the device to begin with.

The Questions to Ask Any Vendor — Before PickupWhoever is taking the device, ask: What happens to the hard drive when this machine leaves? Will the storage be erased or destroyed, to what standard, and will we receive written documentation? Can we schedule that before pickup? A professional provider answers all four without hesitation. If the answer is a blank look, that's an answer too — and reason to put it in writing before the device rolls out the door. For organizations under HIPAA, GLBA, or client-confidentiality obligations, that documentation isn't a nicety; it's your audit evidence.

Taking Delivery of a Used or Remanufactured Device?The question runs both directions: a certified remanufactured MFP should arrive with prior data properly wiped and a fresh configuration — factory-reset admin credentials included. Ask, then change that admin password anyway (checklist item 01 applies from minute one).

ABT offers certified data erasure on the equipment we service and lease: the device's storage is securely erased before it leaves your office or as part of the return process, with documentation you can keep for your records — and for your auditors. If a device is approaching end of lease or replacement, raise it with us early and we'll schedule the erasure ahead of pickup, so the machine and its data never travel together.

One Afternoon Closes This Door

The checklist above is configuration, not spending — and it cuts off the credential-and-contact supply line that feeds the phishing attacks your team faces daily. Want it done for you? ABT's Managed IT covers device hardening, firmware, and monitoring across your fleet, and we're happy to talk through end-of-life data handling before any device leaves your office.

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