The following relates to the printing and sheet marking arts. It is described with example illustrated reference to secure printing methods and apparatuses employing a USB drive as a mobile device for securing print jobs. However, the following is amenable to other like printing methods and apparatuses employing other mobile devices, and to other like applications.
Information security includes many facets, such as firewalls to protect a digital network, password protection of computers and other networked devices, encryption of files and data, removable hard drives to enable information to be carried or otherwise physically secured, and so forth. However, an area where information security is sometimes less stringently enforced is the printing phase.
Typically, a user working at his or her personal computer generates and sends a print job to a printer on the network. The print job is queued at the printing system or elsewhere in the network, and the printing system processes print jobs on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) or other ordering basis. This typical sequence of operations introduces potential information security risks.
The queued print job represents one security risk. This is typically a file in a print document language (PDL) such as PostScript, which is communicated from the personal computer to the network printing device. The PDL then resides at the printing device or at a storage queue accessed by the printing device until it is printed. The transfer and temporary storage of the PDL represent opportunities for data theft. The PDL is sometimes in an unencrypted format, and in some cases the PDL includes the entire document content.
The physical printed sheets present another security risk. The push-type nature of the printing process means that the user sends the print job to the printer, where it is printed immediately or after earlier or higher priority print jobs are processed. In either case, it is possible or perhaps even likely that the person who generated the print job will not be present at the printing device when the physical printed sheets are generated, providing another opportunity for information theft.
These information security risks are enhanced in arrangements in which a more substantial delay between the printing and user pickup of the sheets is likely, or in which the printed sheets may be generated in an unsecured location. Such an arrangement exists, for example, when a traveling business person prints confidential material using a hotel printer, or when the printing device is at a commercial print shop that is not owned or controlled by the person who generated the print job.