HP Security Manager is a policy-based print security solution that helps you secure and manage your HP printing and imaging fleet as part of your broader security strategy. Most organizations already protect PCs, networks, and servers with tools like authentication, encryption, and monitoring. Printers, however, are often left out, even though they handle confidential and business‑critical data. HP Security Manager helps you close that gap by: - **Centralizing print security policies**: You define a security policy once and apply it across your HP fleet, so devices follow the same standards as the rest of your infrastructure. - **Automating compliance**: The solution continuously assesses devices against your policy and can automatically remediate noncompliant settings on a schedule you choose (daily, weekly, or monthly). - **Reducing manual effort and risk**: Instead of configuring each device individually, HP Security Manager automates policy deployment, certificate management, and ongoing monitoring. In practice, this means you can strengthen your security posture, reduce administrative overhead, and help ensure your print environment is not the weak link in your security chain.

HP Security Manager is designed to make print security more manageable and predictable by standardizing how you create policies, connect devices, and maintain compliance. **1. Policy creation and customization** - You use the **HP Policy Editor** to build security policies with an intuitive rules engine. - There is a **Base Policy template** that gives you a starting point based on: - U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidance - HP Security Best Practices Checklist - Your own input on what’s needed for a secure but productive print environment - Policies are easy to adjust as your business, regulations, or industry standards change. **2. Adding devices to your security policy** You can connect HP devices to HP Security Manager in several ways: - **Auto-discovery**: Scan a defined IP range or number of network hops, then select which devices to manage. - **Import from file**: Upload a .txt or .xml file with device IPs or hostnames, including exports from HP Web Jetadmin. - **HP Instant-on Security**: Automatically add and secure each HP device as soon as it’s connected to the network or after a cold reset—no manual IT action required. With **HP Instant-on Security**, the built-in device agent finds the HP Security Manager server when the device is plugged in or rebooted, and the server immediately applies your security policy so the printer is brought into compliance right away. **3. Ongoing assessments and automated remediation** You choose how often to run assessments (for example, daily, weekly, or monthly): - **Assessment**: HP Security Manager runs in the background, checks each device against your defined policy, and flags any noncompliant settings. - **Remediation**: It can automatically correct those settings and then re-check them to confirm the fix. **4. Compliance reporting and risk visibility** Built-in reporting helps you understand and document your security posture: - Run **summary reports** on overall fleet risk, then drill down by device or specific security settings. - Configure **emailed reports** after each scheduled assessment and remediation. - Use **risk assessments** to identify less secure devices (for example, devices without the latest firmware, Jetdirect firmware, or advanced features like Sure Start, run-time intrusion detection, or whitelisting). In one financial services example, using HP Security Manager increased policy compliance from **less than 25% of the fleet** to **more than 97%**. That kind of improvement helps IT teams demonstrate control, meet regulatory expectations, and free up time for higher-value work.

HP Security Manager is built to reimagine how you manage certificates for your print fleet and to fit into a standard Windows-based IT environment. **1. Fleet-wide certificate management** Certificates are essential for secure communication and identity verification between devices and systems. Manually installing and maintaining unique certificates on each printer can take **up to 15 minutes per device**, which often leads organizations to skip or underuse certificates. HP Security Manager streamlines this by: - **Deploying unique identity certificates across your fleet** from a central console. - **Continuously monitoring certificate status** to ensure they remain valid. - **Automatically replacing revoked or expired certificates** without manual intervention. - Managing both **ID and CA certificates**, which helps secure your infrastructure, applications, and device communications. The result is a shift from a manual, error-prone, device-by-device process to a **simple, one-time setup** that scales across your entire fleet. **2. Core system requirements** To run the latest version of HP Security Manager, you’ll need: - **Operating system (64-bit)**: - Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012 R2, or 2012 - Windows 11 or Windows 10 HP recommends using a supported Windows Server or a current Windows 10/11 environment for best performance. - **Software components**: - Microsoft **Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5** or newer - **Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8** or newer (the installer will guide you if it’s missing) - **Database**: Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Express is installed by default. Other supported databases are listed in the Security Manager Release Notes. - **Server hardware (recommended)**: - 4 or more processor cores - 2.8 GHz or higher processor speed - 12 GB or more of RAM - 4 GB of available storage - **Supported browsers**: - Google Chrome version 60 or newer - Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) version 79 or newer **3. Virtualization support** HP Security Manager is supported in **VMware** and **Hyper-V** environments using the Windows versions listed above. A few practical notes: - Hyperthreading is optional; **reserve memory** is required for Hyper-V. - For VMware, you must use a **static MAC address** for the virtual adapter when ordering the license file. If the MAC address changes, the print license service may stop working. - If a license import fails on a VMware VM, a reboot typically resolves it. - **SQL Server 2017 or 2019** is recommended on VMware, but **SQL Server 2022** is preferred to avoid known vulnerabilities in earlier versions. With these requirements in place, HP Security Manager can help you standardize certificate use, reduce manual work, and keep your print environment aligned with your broader security and compliance practices.