outdoor digital signs

As businesses increasingly rely on digital solutions for day-to-day operations, the need for robust security measures has never been greater.

While digital signage software is an excellent tool for informing, entertaining, and engaging your customers, it also needs to be safeguarded from threats like malicious tampering and data theft.

Here’s a look at some of the most common types of threats and four ways you can ensure that your digital signage software stays protected.

Common Digital Signage Network Threats

Bad actors may target the integrity and functionality of your digital signage software to accomplish a number of different objectives, such as displaying malicious or misleading content, stealing your data, and compromising your financial security.

Unfortunately, without proper security measures in place, your system is vulnerable to many of the most common threats, including:

  • Malware attacks that use malicious software or compromised content to access your systems
  • Eavesdropping on your network activity that gives attackers access to your sensitive information
  • Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that overload your digital signage network with disruptive requests
  • Physical interference with your devices that leaves them vulnerable to operation tampering and data theft

Dedicated attackers may find a way in, no matter what. However, you can significantly protect yourself from these types of threats with the following digital software security measures.

How to Keep Your Digital Signage Software Secure

Only use secure networks and strong passwords

Running your digital screens and players on open or guest networks leaves you extremely vulnerable to attacks. Make sure that you use a secure network for all of your devices and systems that can only be accessed by authorized users with the proper credentials.

As an added security measure, create strong passwords for your network that use at least 12 characters, a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters.

Keep your software updated

Just as it’s important to keep your digital signage content up-to-date, you should also regularly update the software that powers your display screens and players. With each new update, your digital signage software adds new layers of security and addresses any past weaknesses.

Failing to keep your signage software up-to-date will leave it with open backdoors that attackers can use to break into your system.

Avoid using homemade or unsecured devices

In certain situations, you may be tempted to incorporate homemade, third-party, or otherwise unsecured devices into your digital signage system. While this might save you a little time and money in the short run, using these devices can quickly lead to security problems that affect your whole system.

Professional digital signage hardware and software are expertly designed to operate as securely as possible, but that’s not often the case with outside tech.

Keep your physical spaces secure

There are a number of ways that bad actors can hack into your digital signage system without ever touching your devices or even visiting your physical location, but that doesn’t mean you should cut corners when securing your brick-and-mortar spaces and hardware.

All of your interactive touchscreen kiosks and digital screen displays should be securely bolted down, and you should regularly inspect them for any signs of damage or tampering. Outfitting your spaces with top-notch door locks, smart entries, and security cameras is also the best way to prevent physical hardware tampering, not to mention theft, vandalism, and other security threats.

Let Spectrio Build Your Secure Digital Signage Software

In addition to these four strategies for keeping your digital signage software protected, you can also rely on Spectrio to design and build your network with security as a top priority.

We know exactly what it takes to keep your business safe from a range of digital threats.

Businesses in a wide variety of industries trust Spectrio to help drive their customer engagement efforts, and we currently operate in more than 150,000 locations across the nation.

Schedule a demo to learn more about our security measures, digital signage services, and in-store messaging solutions.