News

What do these certificates awarded to MFPs really mean?

22 958 2010

The environment, management and security are important criteria in the MFP purchasing decision process.

Worldwide and European organizations are implementing more and more compliance certificates to promote the quality of their products, and compliance with environmental and safety standards.

In order to better understand the likes of Rohs, Common Criteria or WEEE ... we are launching a series of news on these compliance initiatives, which may constitute a real strength in the sales pitch of the printing professional (Office market).

1. COMMON CRITERIA
'Common Criteria (CC) is an international standard (ISO / IEC 15408) created for the safety of information systems. Its full name is Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation.

Seven levels (EAL - Evaluation Assurance Level) have been defined to assure product compliance with safety standards:

• EAL1: functionally tested
• EAL2: structurally tested
• EAL3: methodically tested and checked
• EAL4: designed, tested and verified methodically

Beyond EAL4 +, it's all about military applications.

In the USA, the NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership) manages CC evaluation criteria, under the control of the NSA (National Security Agency) and therefore the Defense Department.

The systems covered by this standard are operating systems, communication devices, systems dedicated to information security and smart cards.

This standard is found in the printing market to make sure the data passing through the MFP is secure (Full safety kit). Fuji Xerox machines, Xerox, Konica-Minolta, Ricoh and OEM, Toshiba, Canon ... are Common Criteria certified and as such appear on the dedicated website www.commoncriteriaportal.org with their respective level assessment.

Sources: Wikipedia, Common Criteria Portal
You will soon see the CC (Common Criteria) certification information for machines listed in DMO on the DataTech product datasheets.