Recently, alarming news emerged for printer owners: over 689 Brother printer models are vulnerable to cyber attacks, along with 53 additional models from Fujifilm, Konica, Minolta, Ricoh, and Toshiba. This development adds to the ongoing frustrations that come with managing home printers.
The situation is compounded by the existence of eight exploitable flaws, with one being impossible to patch. Unfortunately, a firmware update won’t resolve the issue since the default settings that your printer ships with cannot be changed.
Fortunately, you can take proactive steps to mitigate the risks posed by these vulnerabilities. The first step is to change the default administrator password on your printer.
Additionally, make sure to update the device to address the remaining seven bugs. By doing so, you can safeguard against potential threats, such as malicious actors stealing stored scans, accessing saved contacts, altering your settings, and executing unauthorized commands.
This situation serves as a crucial reminder of the importance of changing default passwords when setting up any new device. This best practice isn’t limited to printers; it should also apply to routers, baby monitors, and any other devices that come with preset usernames and passwords.
While manufacturers have started to provide unique passwords for their devices, as demonstrated by the Brother incident, this does not always ensure that the login information is secure or truly random. To simplify the process of creating and maintaining strong passwords, consider using a password manager.
These tools can generate and store complex passwords, reducing the risk of using weak passwords. Creating passwords based on phrases or personal associations may feel convenient, but such methods often yield vulnerabilities.
In light of the Brother incident, it’s clear that stronger measures must be taken to secure our devices.