At 06:14 PM 3/25/97 PST, Randy Turner wrote:
>There is an interesting (short) article in this week's
>"Computer World" that suggests users are excited about
>the prospect of printing over the internet but worried
>about security; some even desiring encryption. In fact
>the name of the article (on page 43) is titled:
>"Users doubt security of net printing".
---
In order not to keep those of you who have not got the ComputerWorld
article handy in suspense until next week, I had the short article typed up
for you.
Carl-Uno
---
Source: ComputerWorld - March 24, 1997
Users DOUBT SECURITY OF NET PRINTING
by Matt Hamblen
Vendors in recent weeks have announced new products and plans to allow for
printing digital documents over the internet. But potential customers are
skeptical that their transmissions will be secure.
Printer vendors say the market could be large because printing over the
Internet can save users the cost of faxing over long-distance telephone lines.
But analysts and users said the idea of sending sensitive files over the
internet for printing raises serious security and reliability questions -
even after considering some recently announce production (CW, March 17.).
Given what some observers see as ripe market piercingly, this relatively
new area continues to draw vendor activity.
The following companies recently made these Internet printing announcements:
- XCD, Inc. in Tustin, Califf., announced the $49 PrintraNet remote
Internet printing software. It lets a PC user at one site print a file on
a remote printer by sending the document as a standard electronic-mail
message.
- Sun Microsystems, Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., has joined the
Salutation Consortium, a global group that's is developing a standard for
locating and managing devices across the Internet.
- Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Wash., is poised to enter the market after
unveiling its Internet printing concept before a section of the Internet
Engineering Task Force, a group of vendors working on a series of Internet
standards. According to Microsoft's plans, printers would be attached to a
Windows NT print server, and end users could print documents over the World
Wide Web by filing the printer's uniform resource locator. Microsoft
officials declined to comment on specific product plans.
Sending print jobs to a remote printer over the Internet may have appeal,
but security is still a concern, said Vince Agresti, director of
information systems at Management Recrutiers International in Cleveland.
"I'd want the files to be encryptable," Agresti said. When told that XCD
touts its Internet printing software as being as secure as E-mail, he
ansered: "Saying your print job is just as secure as E-mail is like saying
something's just as secure as a cell phone."
Agresti said his company produces legal, sales and office manuals and could
benefit by having high-quality printing on demand at its 700 regional
offices.
----
Carl-Uno Manros
Principal Engineer - Advanced Printing Standards - Xerox Corporation
701 S. Aviation Blvd., El Segundo, CA, M/S: ESAE-231
Phone +1-310-333 8273, Fax +1-310-333 5514
Email: manros at cp10.es.xerox.com