SECURITY FEATURES of the EX Secure MICR printers

The EX Secure MICR printers contain the following features:

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TROY MICR Fonts

Embedded in the DIMM of the printer are the TROY MICR fonts (and various other font families). These fonts are secure, and only enabled when the correct "call sequence" in the data stream signals the DIMM to be enabled - this combined with the MICR Lock being in the Print MICR position and the MICR toner sensor recognizing that the MICR cartridge is installed (see below for MICR Lock and MICR Toner Sensor) will allow the printer to activate and release the MICR fonts. The purpose of having the fonts embedded in the DIMM is to eliminate unauthorized operators accessing the MICR Fonts to create illegal MICR encoded documents.

3 Position MICR Lock

This physical key lock gives the controller the ability to set the printer in which ever mode they wish, Print MICR, MICR Locked or Printer Locked. The Print MICR position enables the MICR functionality and access to the MICR fonts which are embedded in the TROY DIMM inside the printer. The MICR Locked mode allows the controller to deactivate the MICR functionality and allow the printer to be used as a standard laser document printer if required (although it should be noted that most financial institutions do dedicated the printer for MICR cheque and other security documents - and not general word processing). When the key is put in the Printer Locked position the controller has totally disabled the printer allowing no printing at all.

NOTE: It is strongly advised that when the key is turned to the desired position for operation that it is removed by the controller until the end of the printing session.

Tray Locks

The TROY MICR EX Secure printers come complete with locks to secure the paper trays storing the cheque/security paper. They have also been modified at the rear of the printer to deny unlawful entry and access to the cheque security paper (i.e. theft of cheque paper). This is designed to protect theft in day to day operations; statistics show that a large percentage of theft is internal to organizations. NOTE: It is strongly recommended that once the trays are locked and secured - that the keys are removed by the controller and not left in the printer.

MICR Toner Sensor

Fitted inside the printer is a sensor to detect that a MICR toner cartridge is being used when the MICR lock is in the 'Print MICR' position. It is critical that documents (cheques) requiring MICR encoding are printed with MICR toner and not standard laser toner. As the TROY EX Secure MICR printers can be switched to print non-MICR documents (when the 3 position key lock is turned to MICR Locked) often the toner cartridge is switched from a MICR to standard cartridge, the MICR Toner Sensor ensures that at any given time the correct MICR toner cartridge is installed when required to print MICR documents. If the sensor detects that a non MICR toner is installed when the MICR lock is in the Print MICR position, the printer will not print and a warning will be shown in the display panel alerting the operator of this condition.

TRAY Mapping

Using the TROY print (software) utility, the Tray Mapping feature is designed to ensure that the correct paper is pulled from the correct tray at 'print time', thus not printing data or MICR information on the wrong paper stock - this increases efficiency and decreases wastage of paper and toner. Alternatively, if only one paper type was used and there were 2 paper trays filled with the same cheque paper in the printer, as soon as one tray became empty it would automatically pull paper from the second paper tray, but when using multiple types of paper the Tray Mapping feature fully controls which paper is pulled for each appropriate print job.

Paper Jam Re-Print Disabled

With most laser printers, if a paper jam occurs a replacement document is reprinted once that paper jam has been cleared. This is not good practice when printing cheques for 2 main reasons; you would have 2 cheques with the same details and no record or audit trail of the second print, and also a 'false' jam could be engineered by a person wishing to print a second cheque for devious purposes. The TROY printer will not automatically reprint that cheque after a paper jam is cleared, the command would have to be sent from the application software and that software (as with the TROY cheque printing software) will have (should have) controls giving certain operators or supervisors permission to reprint. That reprint should then be recorded in a 'print log' in the application software leaving an audit trail.

Audit Report

An audit report can be produced by the printer showing exactly what documents have been printed. This report will record some default information (the most critical) such as the MICR line details, cheque number, cheque value, and 3 custom fields can also be selected to print in the report, such as cheque date, payee name etc. Although much of this data would be available in the application software, the concept of the TROY audit report is to have the ability to compare what was sent from the application with what actually printed out of the TROY printer to ensure no interception and modification of data occurred.

PIN Access

To protect from unauthorized access and use of printer, access to MICR functionality or a particular print job, 3 PIN levels are available to be set up using the TROY utility. The most commonly used PIN function is the PIN for access to printer. This is essentially an electronic version of the physical key in the 3 position MICR lock, and some users set up duel custody having one manager/controller as custodian of the physical key and the other as custodian of the PIN access - both would be required to gain access to the printer. The concept is to better secure access to the printer and having the requirement of duel access reduces the likelihood of complicity for illegal purposes.

TROY Mark™

TROY Mark The TROYMark™ is designed as a 'visible' deterrent to anyone wishing to tamper with the cheque for fraudulent means. TROYMark™ picks up critical fields in the data stream, mainly Payee Name and Cheque Amount and reprints those details several times in the background of the cheque in a (user adjustable) light grey scale. The concept here is to deter a potential fraudster from contemplating the attempt to alter or tamper with the cheque. The print area of TROYMark™ can be controlled using the TROY utility, this is important as there are some areas of the cheque that do not allow further background print - these rules vary depending on the banking standards of your country.

Digitized Signatures

The TROY MICR printers can be set up to add signatures to cheques in a single pass operation. This requires a sample signature of the signing officer(s) to be scanned and digitized - and then stored onto a DIMM which fits inside the printer (similar to how the MICR fonts are stored). The signature can then be enabled and printed onto a document by sending 'call sequences' in the data stream to the printer. The signature is secure and will not be accessible unless the MICR key is in the Print MICR position and the correct 'call sequence' is used. This function is commonly used these days and totally streamlines the process of cheque issuing, and is secure and far more efficient than the traditional methods of cheque signing. If a cheque/document required 2 signatures, this can also be accommodated, or you could have one signature automated and the other manually signed - the flexibility is there to suit the end user's requirement. The 'call sequences' to enable and print the signatures are used in the same way as described above to call and print the MICR fonts in the DIMM.