U.S. Army Training Facility

Challenge

The organization depends on a wide variety of communications and technology equipment to sustain and support its mission to train Army soldiers for the battlefield. Printers and MFPs serve many mission-critical purposes in both the country’s peace and wartime strategies.

Previously, the organization had a number of networked, single-function printers and copiers throughout the facility. Although it had many protocols in place to ensure desktop and network security access through CAC authentication, its output devices were largely unprotected.

Documents could be printed and accidentally left on the printer, for example, opening up the possibility that confidential information could be retrieved by an unauthorized recipient. Fax, copy, and scan access on copiers and MFPs did not require authentication. Faxes could be sent to any number, without identifying the sender. Similarly, documents could be scanned and anonymously sent to any email address from these unsecure output devices, which is against Department of Defense (DoD) policy.

The facility’s Information Assurance Division chief understood that the organization required a new solution to ensure compliance with government mandates. In order to more fully protect sensitive information, the facility needed a solution to verify identity and security classifications each and every time a user attempts to use the print, copy, fax, or scan features of networked output devices on the network.

Solution

After a thorough analysis and rigorous testing of available solutions, the organization chose to implement Lexmark MFPs equipped with secure Print Release. Now, every user can authenticate at each Lexmark MFP using his or her CAC card. Once authenticated, based on his or her CAC card credentials, the user can release print jobs and more fully leverage the organization’s network via the MFP functions located on the full-color e-Task touch screen.

Lexmark’s Authentication Software enables the training facility to validate CAC card credentials and PINs from its Active Directory. This approach obtains the certificate chain for each print, copy, fax, or scan request. Lexmark’s CAC-enabled reader is compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards for CAC and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards.

To date, Lexmark has installed approximately 75 MFPs, serving approximately 3,000 users at the facility. The organization specifically chose color multifunction devices, including the Lexmark X73x family, for the majority of its installations. According to the facility’s Information Assurance Division chief, the availability of color output for his employees is an advantage. Employees can print in black and white for draft documents and choose color for final versions.

Results

The facility can now ensure that print jobs do not print until a user authenticates at the Lexmark MFP and releases the job using a government-issued CAC card. This prevents potentially confidential information from sitting unattended on a printer. According to the organization’s Information Assurance Division chief, competing solutions from other providers did not stand up to this rigorous testing.

He also found that Lexmark is responsive, and since Lexmark owns the technology in its devices, has the ability and a willingness to adapt its products and services to fit his organization’s unique requirements.

“Other vendors couldn’t provide the level of security we needed,” said the chief. “Lexmark listened and created a simple solution that directly addressed our requirements.”