Rugged devices are designed to function come rain or sunshine – literally. These devices can operate in harsh environments, including in extreme temperatures, water, strong vibrations, heavy dust, and for long periods of time.
They’re particularly popular in warehouses, construction, logistics, and healthcare, and their scope of use is expanding. In fact, one survey found that over half of IT decision-makers plan to increase their spending on rugged devices in the next 12-18 months.
But when it comes to data breaches, rugged devices are just as vulnerable as other technology. The cyber landscape can be as hostile as physical surroundings, and so the ruggedness of a device is determined as much by its defense against hacks as by its durability.
Founder and CEO of Hexnode.
Back to security basics
It’s easy to overlook the foundations of cybersecurity when managing sophisticated rugged devices, but without this baseline, you’re building on quicksand. Standard cybersecurity practices ensure that all devices in your fleet have protective measures that can evolve and be customized according to your organizational needs. These basics include:
- Regular software updates for your operating systems, firmware, and applications. Ideally, these updates should be automatic to guarantee that any security vulnerabilities are patched with the latest releases, and that security features respond to the most current threats.
- Two factor authentication (2FA) and biometrics for account access. Passwords alone aren’t enough
– 2FA and biometrics provide another layer of protection that makes accessing rugged devices and their data more difficult for players who don’t have permissions.
- Only connect to secure, trusted WiFi and VPN connections. If your team has to use public internet connections, they should only do so with a VPN to avoid exposing sensitive information on rugged devices.
- Encrypt data for files stored within rugged devices, both when they’re at rest and in transit.
- Back up data frequently (both offline or via the cloud) and store data away from physical rugged devices so that if they’re compromised, data can be remotely wiped and is not completely lost.
Update rugged systems and strategies
Rugged tech security requires upgrading your devices and appliances to close any gaps in your security systems – particularly in places where gaps are more likely to be targeted and exacerbated by malicious actors. For example, researchers have shown that industrial barcode scanners used by airport baggage handling systems can have keystrokes remotely injected into them and compromise the computer connected to the scanners.
In response, organizations need to integrate rugged technology with existing and unfolding digital infrastructures. With this seamless connectivity, device management and operations are more efficient, and real-time decision making is easier and more effective. It also reduces opportunities for errors and for hackers to find and take advantage of points of entry.
Just look at Google’s latest Distributed Cloud configuration. The air-gapped appliance maintains connectivity in full isolation (without being connected to Google Cloud or public internet), so users in rugged environments can still access Google cloud applications without jeopardizing data or increasing the risk of outages.
Likewise, there has to be employee training for your staff to know how to use rugged devices securely and to follow security protocols. A study from Stanford and Tessian reports that employee mistakes cause 88% of data breach incidents, yet with policies like password specifications, no auto-login, and no personal app downloads, this number can be significantly lowered.
The physical maintenance of rugged devices is important too. That means cleaning, servicing, and having a reliable support team to optimize devices and minimize operational failures. And, where possible, you should customize your rugged tech based on how it’s used – for instance, setting limits on battery use and how many connections it can make at a time. The more efficiently a rugged device runs, the better shielded it is in the business and cybersecurity environment.
Rugged device management for the remote reality
Rugged devices are designed for their immediate environment but they are powered (and protected) by remote administrators. Organizations therefore have to enforce remote security policies that empower long-term, safe device usage and data access.
That starts with remote data wipe and device locking. If your rugged devices are lost or stolen, your data can be removed from a distance and access to the device prevented. For rugged devices that are used in precarious environments and can fall into the wrong hands, this functionality is essential.
Elsewhere, kiosk mode can restrict internet browsing and downloading apps on rugged devices, which stops data from being abused by unsafe apps and websites. Remote device inventory monitoring also helps, as it shows all managed devices in one dashboard with insights around platform summary, device details, compliance violations, and device status. You can equally adopt remote device management that tracks the precise location of devices in real time. With information around devices’ longitude and latitude, you can always survey your fleet and check that devices aren’t in places where they shouldn’t be.
Even with these rugged device management steps in place, it’s still wise to have notification and alerts for when there are potential security threats. These inform your users and administrations ahead of time before issues worsen and a data breach can take place. For instance, you could set up alerts around geofence breaches when your rugged devices are taken beyond a certain location.
The rugged road ahead
Despite their name, rugged devices are sensitive to cybersecurity hacks and need regular maintenance to be shielded from them. And, as rugged devices become more advanced, there’s greater pressure on IT administrations to update those protections in parallel.
By brushing up security basics, updating systems and strategies, and prioritizing remote management, your rugged devices can truly be robust and a reliable form of ROI for organizations.
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