Organisations spend significant capital to protect digital assets from threats, yet frequently overlook one of the most integral devices in use today, the office MFP. The more advanced and integrated MFP's become, the greater the risk to confidential information during the document's life cycle when it is being copied, printed, scanned or faxed. Fortunately, Sharp has a range of advanced security solutions. Individually, they protect your data from a wide range of threats. Together, they provide virtually impenetrable end-to-end protection throughout the entire document lifecycle.

• Encrypts data while it is processed on MFP.
• Securely overwrites data once a job is completed.
• Industry's first Common Criteria validated solution.

Digital copiers/printers or MFPs can retain hundreds of pages of confidential information from previous jobs on their hard disks or internal memory.  To safeguard this information from unauthorised access, the optional Data Security Kit applies a powerful data encryption algorithm to the data as it is written to the internal hard drive, RAM and ROM. That means that even if someone did manage to access to your printer or copier, any retrieved data would be unintelligible and therefore useless. The Data Security Kit's secure overwrite feature can overwrite left over data files up to seven times with a series of random values.  Coupled with our unique encryption protection, the Data Overwrite feature completely prevents the recovery of residual data by any commercially available means.

• Perfect solution for keeping documents confidential.
• No unauthorised copying, scanning, faxing and filing.
• Embeds copy prevention data onto hard copy documents.

  Sharp's Document Control function is ideal for protecting confidential documents from being copied, scanned or faxed. Document Control works by embedding copy prevention data onto hard copy documents as they are created by the MFP. This data, which appears on each page as a barely visible pattern, prevents a document from subsequently being copied, scanned, faxed or filed. Any unauthorised attempts to copy a Document Controlled-document will simply be cancelled or result in the output of a blank page.  The MFP will also generate an e-mail alert to notify the administrator. Document Control is available on the MX series of colour MFP's that have been equipped with the Data Security Kit.

• Prevents operation by unauthorised users.
• Provides detailed record by user.
• Eliminates security risks for network-connected MFP

User Authentication adds a top level of security and protects valuable network resources by limiting access to registered users with valid network accounts. Before starting a scan, the user must first enter a username and password which are authenticated against the global address book on a designated server. For added convenience and traceability, the operator's email address is added to the “from” field of the sent document, and a blind copy can be sent to your network administrator, or to an archive to keep a record of all scanned documents. A log is kept for an audit trail of document scans.

• Provides firewall to each MFP.
• Access can be controlled at 3 levels.
• Prevents access to network settings.
• Prevents access to configuration details.
• Provided as standard on all Sharp MFP Network interfaces

Sharp's Secure Network Interface provides a firewall to each printer or copier, preventing unauthorised access to configuration details and network settings, and restricting usage to identified print servers and specific users. This eliminates the risk of external attacks without compromising the needs of the users or the remote access abilities of the system administrator. Access can be controlled at 3 levels:

• IP address filtering, which limits access to a select number of pre-defined addresses.
• MAC address filtering, which limits access to specific PCs regardless of their IP addresses.
• TCP/IP services blocking, which block specific communication protocols and gives the ability to close vulnerable ports and disable the embedded home page of the device.

• Encrypts data as it flows across the network.
• Lets you securely print documents on the network.

As data is sent to an MFP – either by way of a document that is to be printed or as an exchange of information between the device and the system administrator – it has the potential to be intercepted by a third party. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts the information in the data stream from the moment it is sent to the moment it is received by the MFP. As well as protecting documents that are being sent to print, this feature also encrypts any information exchanged between the MFP and the administrator, who can view the MFP's internal webpage in a secure mode (HTTPS). The level of encryption can be set as low, medium or high. This feature also makes use of digital certificates to uniquely identify the MFP across the network, even if the IP address has been changed.Administrators can securely view MFPs internal web page.

• Protects scanned documents with password encryption.
• No unauthorised printing of documents scanned to PDF.
• Uses RSA technology to encrypt file before it is sent.

The ability of MFPs to scan documents and send them as PDF files to local or remote destinations via email creates the potential risk of either accidental or deliberate interception by an unauthorised person. So if the nature of your work means that you deal with confidential information, encryption is a sensible precaution. Suitable for scanning to e-mail, FTP, Desktop, HDD and USB, Sharp's Encrypted PDF function uses RSA technology to encrypt the file before it is sent. The user is prompted to create a password at the time of scanning and the recipient can only view the file if he or she knows the correct password. Encrypted PDF is available as an option on the MX series of colour MFPs.

The Encrypted PDF feature is available once the Postscript option has been fitted to the MFP.