With technology taking over manual operations, businesses are increasingly relying on digital devices. The deployment of public-facing kiosks for various business purposes is common. Interactive kiosks, digital signages, way-finding kiosks and much more. The applications of public-facing kiosks are endless. However, kiosk security still remains a matter of concern for businesses worldwide. The increasing rate of cyber attacks is the prime reason for businesses to focus on kiosk security strategies.
5 Effective Kiosk Security Strategies for Businesses
Public-facing kiosks are generally unsupervised making them easy targets for security breaches. People may toggle with the kiosk settings, access inappropriate content and intentionally or not, expose loopholes for cyber attacks.
Here are some tips to effectively secure your public-facing kiosks:
1. Lockdown Your Kiosks
Kiosk management solutions help businesses lock down their digital devices into specific apps. You can lock your digital kiosks in a single-app mode and disable all the other apps and settings on the device. This ensures that even if the users attempt to switch the pre-configured app on the kiosks, they will not be successful. Only your selected application keeps running on the device, leaving no scope for manipulation or misuse.
2. Ensure Timely Updates and Patch Fixes
Irrespective of the type of public-facing kiosk you install for your business, it relies on one or more applications. App and OS vulnerabilities are one of the greatest entry points for hackers. The best way to keep malicious actors at bay is to ensure timely OS and app upgrades. Businesses that keep a thorough check on the app versions and system vulnerabilities seldom fall prey to cyber-attacks.
3. Continuous Monitoring
Although public-facing kiosks reduce the manual load of on-site teams and help businesses automate processes, they do require some level of monitoring. Remote Management and Monitoring tools help company IT admins keep a constant check on their kiosk usage and performance. Automating compliance checks and running routine analyses based on device vitals helps businesses identify potential risks and issues ahead of time.
4. Network Security
An important consideration that many businesses tend to overlook when planning their kiosk implementation is network security. There are numerous cyber risks in the form of trojans, viruses, malware, etc. that are designed to penetrate corporate networks. Since kiosk management is dependent on the internet for content sharing, video streaming, etc. the network security cannot be overlooked.
Modern-day MDM solutions help businesses configure extensive network security features to add an extra layer of security. VPNs can be configured on your kiosks to ensure an encrypted connection with the corporate servers. Configuring a firewall prevents malicious traffic from connecting to your corporate networks.
5. Remote Support
Public-facing kiosks are deployed for various interactive purposes such as cash withdrawal, web-surfing, booking tickets, hotel rooms, etc. Since several people operate the digital kiosks daily, the chances of them running into technical errors have to be considered. IT admins of businesses can remotely resolve kiosk issues with MDM-enabled features such as Remote Cast & Control to ensure quick fixes and prevent a downgraded customer experience.
Scalefusion MDM for Kiosk Security
Securing multiple diversely placed kiosks is a complicated task. Scalefusion MDM is a unified platform that offers extensive security capabilities to help businesses protect their public-facing kiosks.
- Kiosk Modes
Scalefusion offers diverse Kiosk Lockdown modes to suit your business needs. You can lock your public-facing kiosks in a single-app mode. Alternatively, you can allow 2 or more apps to run on your kiosks with multi-app kiosk mode. The single-app kiosk mode allows businesses to turn commercial devices into purpose-specific kiosks. The kiosk mode ensures that users cannot manipulate the kiosk apps or settings, and only pre-selected apps are allowed to run on the kiosks.
With Scalefusion, IT admins can also lock a particular browser into a single-app mode. This is called ‘Kiosk Browser Lockdown’. IT admins can enable specific trusted websites and lock the browser in a single-app mode to ensure users do not browse insecure websites.
- Reinforced Security
Businesses can leverage numerous security policies that can be configured remotely and pushed on multiple diversely located kiosks. You can configure VPN and firewall to reinforce network security. Furthermore, you can disable hardware buttons and peripherals of your kiosks to prevent misuse by customers. You can also configure Workflows to detect compliance violations on your kiosk devices.
- Comprehensive Monitoring
Not only can you push several security policies on your digital kiosks, you can also ensure strict compliance with Scalefusion. IT admins can leverage extensive kiosk device reports to analyze device health and overall performance. You can also leverage a detailed overview of your kiosks with Scalefusion’s DeepDive analytics. It helps you monitor activity logs, detect compliance violations and device usage patterns.
- Centralized Management
Scalefusion offers you multiple capabilities in the form of a single solution. You need not invest in multiple kiosk software, RMM tools or provision your kiosks individually. You can secure, manage and constantly monitor all your kiosks remotely using a single console. It does not matter which OS your kiosks belong to. Scalefusion supports Android, iOS and Windows devices and offers extensive features for easy kiosk management.
Closing Lines
No system or process is completely secure. But businesses can rest assured of their kiosk security by reinforcing their kiosks with strong security policies. Scalefusion Kiosk Software offers a plethora of features to remotely secure and manage your public-facing kiosks.
