Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions,
and McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, today announced they
have joined forces to provide enhanced embedded protection against malware
execution and tampering of firmware and applications for a sometimes-overlooked
endpoint-multifunction printers (MFPs). Through the partnership, Canon
customers will now receive McAfee Embedded Control as an
additional standard security feature on third generation
imageRUNNER ADVANCE 3rd edition MFPs once enabled.
"The
typical office document workflow continues to change, and in many ways become
more complex, as confidential information now has the potential to migrate from
desktops to MFPs to the cloud and beyond," says Shinichi Yoshida, executive vice president and general
manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc. "We felt
it imperative to align with a company with a proven track record in the
information security industry to provide our customers with additional security
features that can help alleviate some concern and open up more room for what
should be top of mind in an office - productivity."
"As
enterprises continue to undergo their own respective digital transformations,
it will become increasingly important for office equipment manufacturers to
integrate cybersecurity features at the design level," says Keith Kmetz, program vice president of imaging,
printing, and document solutions, IDC. "Canon and McAfee design engineers
joining forces to create an MFP that embeds these features into the device is a
significant step in the future printing industry."
McAfee Embedded
Control, which already protects millions of devices worldwide like ATMs and
retail point-of-sale systems, helps defend 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, such as worms, viruses, and Trojans. Further, it
helps ensure that only Canon-approved, authorized updates can be implemented
within the supported imageRUNNER ADVANCE system, helping to prevent tampering
of existing firmware and applications.
"As the
number of connected devices in an organization grows, so do the risks from
malware and attacks," said Brent Smith,
director of OEM Sales, McAfee. "McAfee Embedded Control ensures the
integrity of systems by only allowing authorized access to devices and blocking
unauthorized executables. In today's modern-day threat landscape, we consider
this alignment with Canon to be a win, and one that can help provide companies
with the necessary assurance that their confidential business data will remain
protected, even as office document workflows evolve."
This new
functionality adds to the extensive set of security features incorporated into
imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFPs. These features help secure the device and related
communications, and provide the capability to efficiently manage security
policies and monitor activity.
McAfee Embedded
Control is available now as a standard feature on all third generation
imageRUNNER ADVANCE 3rdedition MFPs. These models already in
customer environments can be upgraded to include this feature via a Unified
Firmware Platform update available through Canon authorized dealers.
For more
information, visit www.usa.canon.com/thirdedition