Print Control Apparatus Confidential Job Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing print control apparatuses do not effectively prevent information leakage when confidential print jobs are printed without the user being present at the printer, as they continue to print such jobs regardless of the user's presence, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
A print control apparatus that connects to a terminal and a printer, featuring a communicator to receive print jobs and a controller to determine if the job is confidential. If confidential, the controller authenticates the printer and only sends the print data to an authenticated printer, ensuring the job is printed when the user is present, thereby preventing unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the print control apparatus sends print data to the specified printer regardless of user presence, then printing efficiency is improved, but information security deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the printing mode parameter based on the confidentiality parameter of the document. For confidential documents, it switches from automatic printing to authentication-required printing, thereby controlling information leakage while maintaining efficiency for non-confidential documents
Solution Approach 2:
The print control apparatus acts as an intermediary between the terminal and the printer. It intercepts print jobs, determines their confidentiality, and mediates whether to forward them to the printer or require authentication first, thus preventing information leakage while maintaining printing efficiency
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the print control apparatus requires authentication for confidential print jobs, then information security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The printer itself performs the authentication function by displaying the job list and receiving user authentication input. This self-service approach allows the print control apparatus to focus on determining confidentiality without managing the authentication interface, thereby limiting complexity increase
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the print control apparatus determines confidentiality by checking for specific strings, then information security is improved, but measurement precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by having users mark documents as confidential in advance (either manually or through metadata). This pre-marking allows the print control apparatus to simply check for the presence of confidentiality markers rather than analyzing document content, thereby reducing detection difficulty
Data Source
AI summary
A printing control apparatus suppresses information leaking due to a print job being printed when the user is not at the printer. A printing control apparatus that connects to a terminal and a printer has: a communicator configured to receive from the terminal a specified-printer job, which is a print job for which the printer is designated as a print destination; and a controller. If the specified-printer job is not confidential, the controller sends print data based on the specified-printer job to a specified printer, which is the printer designated as the print destination in the specified-printer job. If the specified-printer job is confidential, the controller receives authentication information input to the printer from the printer and executes an authentication process based on the authentication information, and sends the print data to an authenticated printer according to a result of the authentication process.