Digital signage is exploding in every sector, from hospitality to healthcare, retail to schools and universities as industries realize its enormous benefits over traditional printed signage.
So what really is digital signage? You must have observed screens in restaurants, malls, airports, amongst many other places displaying advertisements on a loop, they are nothing but digital signage. It is an electronic mode to convey information to audiences in engaging forms such as videos, presentations, and graphic advertisements, mostly using LEDs, LCDs, and projector screens.
Digital signages are widely used across all economic sectors. Hospitals use this medium to advertise their latest technologies and treatment methods, schools & universities use it to display timetables and schedules, restaurants & cafes have adopted digital signage to display menus, advertisements, and more, whereas the retail sector uses it to advertise discounts and new arrivals. These are just some of the many applications of digital signage.
Since digital signage is such an appealing mode of communication, it goes without saying that it attracts the attention of a mass audience making it a potential target for cyber threats. There have been notable incidents in the past where hackers have broken into systems and used these signs to display inappropriate content. Any device which is connected to an enterprise’s network is at risk of being hacked and the device can be used as an entry point to reach out to the entire network. This makes digital signage security just as crucial as securing every other aspect of an enterprise’s IT infrastructure.
Businesses are adopting digital signage solutions that can help them strengthen their device security. These measures are of utmost importance for digital signages since these devices are kept unattended. Device management solutions enable the IT admins of enterprises to monitor and administer security policies to the digital signages, ensuring round-the-clock protection.
Following are our top picks on how to secure your digital signage using device management solutions
1. Block apps
Utilize third-party management solutions to lock the digital signage device in a single app mode, which would block the usage of all other apps on the device. Alternatively, based on the purpose of the digital signage, the IT admin can set the device on multi-app mode, through which 2 or more apps can be used on the device.
2. Block websites
Whitelist specific websites and allow only those sites to specifically run on your digital signage device. Conversely, blacklist or block all websites and keep only the intended websites running on the device. Either of these approaches curbs the possibility of malicious websites and viruses from hampering digital signage.
3. Password protection
Protect your digital signages with passcodes to prevent unauthorized users from accessing and manipulating the device’s functions.
4. Remote troubleshooting
Digital signages are meant solely for the purpose of audience engagement, which also leads to the fact that they are left unattended throughout the day. If a Digital signage device breaks down, IT admins are required to physically avail themselves at the location of the device to address the issue. However, with managed Digitals signages, remote troubleshooting acts as a rescuer, which saves the manual effort of IT admins, as they can take charge of the device remotely and resolve the issue without having to sprint to the device’s location.
The IT admins can use the Remote casting feature to remotely mirror the device’s screen to help them take control of the device’s functions regardless of their location.
5. Remote app and OS updates
Schedule workflows remotely for the devices to automate routine app and operating system updates. The IT admins need not keep a manual track of every device and every app’s update timeline. They can schedule automatic updates on one or more devices before time and let the process run its course, without hampering the functionality of the device.
6. Automated recurring IT tasks
Reduce manual efforts of the IT team by enabling automated device rebooting, security alerts, and compliance checks. Monitor vitals such as data usage, device battery, location tracking, and more remotely with MDM.
Scalefusion MDM to secure your digital signages
Digital signage solutions showcase a great potential to enhance businesses. But, like any other IT solution, digital signage also requires security measures. Device management security solutions aren’t always simple. Scalefusion is one of the leading Mobile Device Management (MDM) providers that undertake your digital signage security needs and ensure that enterprises deploy optimum measures to prevent security breaches.
Scalefusion MDM offers digital signage management as one of its services, to enable IT teams to provide business-ready digital signage devices that can be un-boxed and directly installed. It also enables an all-around view of their device inventory.
IT teams can publish text messages, videos, images, presentations in diverse formats, design screensavers for branding, take control of peripherals such as WiFi configurations. It offers several other benefits such as fixing workflows to schedule automated tasks such as OS and App updates and device re-booting. IT teams can strengthen security by preventing unauthorized device manipulation with the help of password protection, disabling hardware keys, and establishing single or multi-app modes. Moreover, IT admins can take charge of the device’s security by employing remote cast & control for troubleshooting.
Closing Lines…
With Scalefusion’s MDM you can turn any Android or iOS device into digital signage and leverage remote management capabilities at your fingertips!
