Canon Office of the Future survey finds organizations of all sizes concerned about cyber threats.
We didn’t need a Canon survey to tell us that cyber threats are an ongoing problem. This is an issue that’s become increasingly prevalent in today’s workplaces and in our everyday lives. Still, Canon’s Office of the Future survey is timely in that it validates what’s happening and also underscores the necessity for dealers to examine ways they can assist customers in reducing those threats.
Adding further validation to Canon’s findings, are The Cannata Report’s own findings in our 33rd and 34th Annual Dealer Surveys that reveal security is viewed as a growing opportunity by more dealers. Our 34th Annual Dealer Survey will be published in our October and November 2019 issues.
While the Canon Office of the Future survey might be interpreted as a marketing tool for Canon products and solutions, let’s check our cynicism at the door, and look beyond the marketing, and consider the significance of these findings. Yes, cybersecurity threats are a problem; yes, companies in our industry, not just Canon U.S.A., are focused on reducing those threats; and most of all, those threats are only going to get worse.
Office of the Future Survey
While digital transformation helps companies work smarter, there is a risk that the ongoing digitization may unlock a host of security vulnerabilities that can cost companies money, time, intellectual property, and customer trust. In its latest Office of the Future survey, released today, Canon U.S.A., Inc. finds that all organizations surveyed across a range of verticals experienced an alarming amount of cyber threats over the past year.
In its mission to take a holistic approach to security ““ from the device level to cybersecurity practices ““ Canon explores the top cyber threats based on the survey and offers insight as to how Canon products and solutions can help companies proactively protect themselves to work to close critical gaps in their cybersecurity agendas.
Conducted by global tech market advisory firm ABI Research, the survey of more than one thousand U.S. IT professionals reveals three, pertinent cybersecurity threats:
- Malware and Ransomware: More than one-third of respondents consider malware and ransomware a first priority threat. Yet, 25% of respondents say that employees have limited to no security awareness, nor do they understand their role in prevention.
Canon and McAfee design engineers recently joined forces and worked collaboratively to implement McAfee Embedded Control as a standard built-in security component1 on Canon third generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE third edition solutions. The feature once enabled, helps protect against zero-day and advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks by blocking the execution of unauthorized applications through intelligent whitelisting. This helps reduce the risk posed by sophisticated malware and alleviate some concern among companies to leave less room for worry and more for productivity.
- Compromised Devices: In today’s digital age, and with remote working trends on the rise, 21% of surveyed IT decision-makers rate compromised devices as a priority threat. Respondents then rank data security, network security, and user authentication & ID management as the top three most relevant technologies to help counteract this threat.
In addition to the benefits from its recent integration with one of the most prominent device-to-cloud cybersecurity companies, McAfee, and in accordance with its philosophy that “˜Together is Power’, Canon continues to take measures to help users tackle the many different potential target areas of compromise. This includes helping to protect the imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFP hard drive with a number of optional encryption and overwrite features, offering authentication and Secure Print release functions via the company’s flagship print management solution uniFLOW, as well as the inclusion of SIEM integration capability2 in the latest imageRUNNER ADVANCE lineup.
- Social Engineering: The human factor is a persistent threat. In fact, survey respondents consider malicious insiders (30%) and human error (25%) to be the two top threat sources.
As employees may not always understand, or be aware, as to what is a pervasive threat, Canon, in addition to its flagship uniFLOW offering, works with two notable third parties in order to help employees share information outside of their organization: cloud content and email management solutions Box and mxHero. Further, Canon marries its advanced technology like predictive maintenance with the strength and skills of our channel partners and service providers through ongoing training and support to help provide a comprehensive solution to customers.
Survey results include additional gaps, such as lack of appropriate cybersecurity spend across certain verticals; however, it also indicates hope, with nearly 25% of those surveyed stating that they are looking to increase investments in the key growth area of cloud security in the future.
For more information on the findings from Canon’s latest Office of the Future survey, visit https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/explore/OOTF.
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