Many of our readers will have heard of design flaws in most of the computer central processing units that have been sold into the market for a number of years. We bring you below, one of the first responses from the print industry which is from Konica Minolta. – Editor
16 January 2018. A hardware security flaw that affects processors manufactured by Intel, AMD, ARM and POWER was reported last week. This vulnerability, if exploited, would be executed through malware infections and could gather sensitive data such as passwords and encryption keys from computing devices.
Risk mitigation
While this security flaw is of great concern, the immediate risk of attack is very low. Additionally, processor manufacturers state that this exploit is read-only and cannot corrupt, modify, or delete data. All manufacturers are working with vendors quickly to publish patches to address this issue.
Microsoft
• Today Microsoft is issuing a rare out-of-band security update to supported versions of Windows. These include Windows 10 and Server 2016. Older software will be automatically updated starting next Tuesday during Microsoft Patch Tuesday. The Microsoft patch will address processors by Intel, AMD and ARM manufacturers.
Deployment mechanism*
• Windows 10 Systems and Server 2016 will be automatically updated today, once released by Microsoft.
• Windows 7 or 8 and prior Server versions will be updated during your next regular patching window, starting as early as next Tuesday.
* There are some reports that patching may affect system performance; however, this has not been validated at this time and we will monitor this closely.
Further recommendations
Konica Minolta recommends that you schedule a comprehensive review of All Covered’s security protection solutions. All Covered’s Secure & Protect Security Suite includes various layers of security software, monitoring and End User Awareness Training to ensure organizations have a sound security practice.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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