Printers, copiers, and all-in-one devices are often equipped with non-volatile storage on which information is stored temporarily or for longer periods of time. For example, address books, documents, fax files, and print jobs are stored there. If this information is not adequately protected, third parties can access and read it. Under certain circumstances, attackers can even reconstruct information that has already been deleted if unsafe deletion methods were used.

Data can also be stored and read on a device via network protocols. Printers and all-in-one devices with storage media can often be used as unauthorised file servers if they are not secured. In this way, uncontrolled information that is not taken into account in the respective backup concept can be stored in a decentralised manner.