Zero Trust has reshaped the way organizations think about network security. The core principle—never trust, always verify—has been applied to endpoints, applications, user identities, and cloud workloads. But one category of network endpoint has been a bit slower to join the conversation: printers and multifunction devices.
For years, print infrastructure lived behind the firewall and was treated as inherently trusted. Documents flowed from desktops to print servers to devices over legacy protocols with little authentication and, often, no encryption. In a Zero Trust world, that model is fundamentally broken. Print data can contain some of an organization’s most sensitive information, financial reports, HR records, legal documents, and intellectual property, and the path it travels deserves the same scrutiny as any other data flow.
The good news is that the industry is catching up. The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), the open standard at the heart of Mopria certification, already supports access control, authentication, and TLS encryption. Microsoft’s Windows Protected Print mode is eliminating legacy drivers in favor of this modern, IPP-based stack. And organizations are beginning to integrate print endpoints into their identity and access management frameworks.
In this roundtable, Mopria Alliance members from Lexmark and Kyocera share their perspectives on what it means to bring Zero Trust to the print path, the challenges enterprises face, and the standards-based approaches that are making it possible.
The Print Blind Spot in Zero Trust Architectures
Many organizations have invested heavily in Zero Trust for endpoints, cloud, and identity, yet print infrastructure remains an afterthought. Legacy print servers, unencrypted protocols, and broadly shared device access create gaps that attackers can exploit. Why has print been left out of the Zero Trust conversation, and what does it take to bring it in?
“Zero Trust has become foundational for securing endpoints, cloud services, and identity. Yet print infrastructure is still frequently overlooked, treated as trusted by default rather than continuously verified.
This gap exists largely because of legacy assumptions. Print environments were built around implicit trust: open protocols, shared device access, and print servers that operated quietly behind the firewall. Zero Trust challenges those defaults. It assumes breach, enforces least privilege, and requires explicit verification for every endpoint, including printers.
Modern printers are no longer passive peripherals. They authenticate users, process sensitive documents, integrate with cloud workflows, and operate as networked computing devices. As a result, they must be governed by the same security principles as any other endpoint in a Zero Trust architecture.
Zero Trust forces organizations to reconsider common print assumptions:
- Network presence equals trust
- Print traffic is low risk
- Device firmware and configuration can be deployed and forgotten
Open, standards‑based print paths play a critical role here. Authenticated job submission, encrypted transport, and consistent policy enforcement across platforms and vendors allow print to integrate cleanly into broader Zero Trust strategies.
Zero Trust doesn’t end at the printer, but it can’t succeed without it.”
-Eric McCann, Manager, Technology Portfolio Architect at Lexmark, A Subsidiary of Xerox Corporation
IPP and Standards-Based Security – Encrypting and Authenticating the Print Path
The IPP supports TLS encryption, mutual authentication, and access control—capabilities that map directly to Zero Trust principles. With over 120 million Mopria certified printers already in the field, the standards are in place. The question is how enterprises can leverage them to enforce identity and encrypt data from the application all the way to the device.
“In practice, enforcing TLS encryption and identity verification at the printer endpoint means treating every device as a verified participant in the network, not a trusted exception. Organizations should require encrypted connections, disable legacy protocols, and ensure each print request is authenticated against the user or system identity. In mixed-vendor environments, inconsistent capabilities can create gaps, making it critical to define baseline security policies such as mandatory encryption and authenticated access across all devices.
Standards-based approaches make this achievable at scale. The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), advanced through the Mopria Alliance ecosystem, provides a consistent framework for secure, identity-aware printing. By adopting IPP and integrating with centralized identity systems, organizations can enforce Zero Trust principles and ensure every print job is encrypted, authenticated, and secure end-to-end.”
-Dilinur Wushour, President at Kyocera Document Solutions Development America, Inc.
The Road Ahead – Cloud, Hybrid Work, and the Future of Secure Print
The shift to cloud-based and hybrid print architectures is no longer a trend; it is the standard. Gartner predicted that by 2025, cloud-native platforms would anchor over 95% of new digital initiatives, more than doubling 2021 levels. For the print industry, this transition is a double-edged sword: while it streamlines infrastructure, it forces us to solve for data sovereignty, rethink endpoint trust, and find new ways to secure the environment once the traditional print server is gone.
Closing
The era of trusting the print path by default is ending. As organizations extend Zero Trust to every endpoint and every data flow, print infrastructure can no longer be the exception. The standards are in place, IPP, TLS encryption, Mopria certification, and the platform shifts like Windows Protected Print mode are accelerating adoption.
What’s needed now is for security leaders to treat printers as first-class endpoints in their Zero Trust: authenticated, encrypted, monitored, and managed with the same rigor as any other device on the network.
Thanks for joining us on this edition of our Mopria Alliance roundtable. To get our monthly roundtable delivered to your inbox, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter.
Visit our Print for Business page to learn more about how Mopria supports standardized, secure business printing.
