Many of you might have seen the recent news articles on a number of digital signs, of various sizes, that had been hacked by an unknown source.  Instead of dwelling on those particulars, we reached out to some friends in the OOH community to address the larger issues of 1) How do I prevent it from happening to my digitals and 2) What do i do if it happens to me?

Prevention:

All the digital manufacturers spend a significant amount of time and money towards the prevention of outside parties infiltrating their (and our) systems. One common theme we heard in our discussions is encouraging owner/operators to remember that manufacturers sell digitals  as a complete system.  If you decide to not include the entire package, including routers or some of the ancillary pieces to save money, you might be putting yourselves at greater risk.

Always be focused on best practices.  If you want access to that information, from the OAAA, they have a best practices resource for Digital Billboard Security Guidelines. 

Insider also has published two articles which include a recap of a digital security discussion panel at an IBOUSA Conference and a second article on Digital Billboard Security.

What do I do if it happens to me?

To answer this questions Insider reached out to Outdoorlink for their perspective on dealing with security breaches.

The biggest takeaway here is that security and solutions are important regardless of display size. We have all discussed the importance of security at length – complex passwords, firewalls, etc. – but operators often overlook the importance of additional systems and remote control solutions for smaller displays since they may not produce the same level of revenue as their larger format inventory. However, we’ve learned that every display is at risk. When purchasing or managing your digital displays, it’s important to make sure there are backup tools in place to guarantee that security is able to be maintained. The fact that this hack was primarily on smaller digital displays really highlights even further that all displays should be treated equally where security is involved.

It’s important to maintain multiple ways of rapidly responding to issues, regardless of screen size. With the Outdoorlink Controller System being separate from any operating system, it is the fastest and most reliable way to shut down a board or black out content if security is compromised in any way. It’s a true third party independent pathway, so no matter what happens within their own system or player, operators still maintain full control of their inventory.

Some things each operator can do to make sure they don’t fall victim to hackers or ensure that they are able to rapidly respond to issue that may arise:

• Ask your display provider what security systems are in place and what the response process is to address issues should they arise.
• Ask if your screens are equipped with Outdoorlink Controllers.
• If so, ensure you have access within the system to make response times simpler and easier should you need to use it.
• If not, consider retrofitting so even your smaller or older screens are maintained on the same system
• The biggest thing is don’t fall victim to thinking this can’t happen to you. Regardless of manufacturer or in-house security measures, redundancies and third party solutions are a backup that we hope you never have to use, but are important to have in case you do. As the saying goes, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. And for a few hundred dollars per screen, can you afford not to?

If you have additional thoughts, feel free to send us your ideas to info@billboardinsider.com or fill out the comment box below.

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