Thought Leadership
Printers are considered a security risk in many companies. At the HP Amplify conference, printer manufacturer HP presented devices that it claims are the world’s first business printers to be protected against attacks by quantum computers.
HP 8000 series with quantum protection
The new HP 8000 Series – including the HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP 8801, Mono MFP 8601 and LaserJet Pro Mono SFP 8501 – has been specifically designed with quantum resistance to protect against future quantum attacks. According to the manufacturer, the printers provide a foundation for quantum resistance through new ASIC chips that are equipped with quantum-resistant cryptography and enable the use of digital signature verification to protect firmware integrity against quantum attacks.
The technical basis is the Leighton-Micali signature process (LMS), which was certified as a stateful hash-based signature scheme by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for post-quantum use in 2020. HP has integrated this cryptography directly into the ASIC chips of the printers.
For HP, this approach is a logical consequence of the usual neglect of printers in security concepts. Many IT teams regard printers as static devices with low risk potential – a misconception, as security researchers repeatedly point out. As networked edge devices with their own operating system, they are attractive targets, but often remain unguarded. “Without quantum resistance, a printer exposed to a quantum attack at the firmware level would be completely unprotected by malicious firmware updates, giving the attacker stealthy, persistent and complete control over the device,” says HP.
Pressure from authorities
In addition to the security aspect, HP’s initiative is also likely to be driven by economic considerations. The lucrative US government market in particular is increasingly relying on quantum-resistant encryption. From January 2027, the NSA will require national security systems to comply with the CNSA 2.0 standard, which prescribes quantum-resistant algorithms. For manufacturers like HP, this means Anyone who wants to continue selling to US authorities must upgrade their products accordingly.
Zero-trust architecture included
The new printers also support zero-trust security concepts and are designed to fit seamlessly into corresponding enterprise architectures. HP emphasizes that future-proof security concepts are particularly important for long-lasting peripheral devices such as printers, which often remain in use for over a decade.
Whether quantum resistance delivers what HP promises in practice remains to be seen. However, experts assume that powerful quantum computers could be able to crack today’s standard encryption within the next ten years. By using LMS methods, HP is taking a step that other manufacturers will probably soon have to follow.
