7 Alarming Reasons Digital Signage Has Become a Real Cybersecurity Threat

Digital Signage Cybersecurity Isn't Optional Anymore

In April 2025, digital menu boards at nearly 300 quick-service restaurants across Canada were hijacked. Hackers replaced menu content with political messaging. The breach went viral on social media within minutes. Screens had to go dark while the signage provider scrambled for a fix, and the restaurant chain was left apologizing to the public for something completely outside its control.

The root cause? A phishing attack that gave unauthorized access to a third-party signage provider's cloud systems.

That incident should worry every organization running networked displays. Because here's what most people still don't realize: digital signage has quietly become a full-blown IoT ecosystem. Cloud-managed platforms, network-connected players, third-party data feeds, remote access portals. Every one of those layers introduces risk. And most signage providers still aren't treating digital signage cybersecurity as a serious discipline.

The broader numbers back this up. IoT malware attacks surged 107% in 2024 according to SonicWall's Cyber Threat Report. Automated attacks against connected devices now average 820,000 per day. More than half of all IoT devices contain at least one critical vulnerability, and one in three data breaches now involves an IoT component. Signage players and cloud-connected displays fit squarely into that category. They're IoT devices with screens attached, yet they rarely get the same security attention as cameras, sensors, or even smart thermostats.

So why is the signage industry still playing catch-up on security? And what should buyers actually be looking for?

Cloud CMS Platforms Changed Everything (Including the Risk)

There was a time when digital signage was simple. Load content onto a USB stick, plug it in, walk away. No internet connection, no remote access, no attack surface worth mentioning.

That model is mostly gone. Today's signage runs on cloud-based content management systems that let administrators update screens across hundreds of locations from a single dashboard. Marketing teams love it. Facilities managers rely on it for emergency messaging. The convenience is real.

But so is the exposure.

A cloud CMS introduces multiple vulnerability layers. There's the authentication layer, where every user login becomes a potential entry point. If credentials get compromised through phishing (exactly what happened in the Canadian breach), an attacker can push content to every connected screen on the network. Then there's the API layer. Modern platforms expose APIs for integrations with data sources, scheduling systems, social feeds, and enterprise applications. Each API endpoint is a potential doorway if it's not locked down with proper authentication tokens and input validation.

And then there's the infrastructure itself. Cloud CMS platforms typically run on shared hosting through AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. These providers maintain strong baseline security, but the responsibility for configuring it properly falls on the signage vendor. Misconfigured storage, unpatched components, overly permissive access policies... these are the kinds of mistakes that led to the Mars Hydro incident in early 2025, where a simple misconfiguration exposed 2.7 billion IoT device records.

What makes this especially tricky is the organizational gray zone digital signage occupies. It sits somewhere between IT infrastructure and marketing tooling. The marketing team picked the vendor. The AV integrator installed the hardware. But the IT security team responsible for protecting the network? They often don't even know what CMS platform is running, let alone whether it meets their security standards.

This is a governance problem as much as a technical one. When nobody clearly owns the security posture of the signage network, it falls through the cracks. And attackers are very good at finding cracks.

Your Signage Player Is Just Another Network Endpoint

Here's something that should concern any IT security team: a digital signage player sitting on the corporate network is, from a security standpoint, just another endpoint. If it gets compromised, it can be used as a launchpad to reach more sensitive systems.

This isn't theoretical. Palo Alto Networks' 2025 Device Security Threat Report analyzed 27 million connected devices across more than 1,800 enterprise networks. They found that 32.5% of all devices operate outside IT's control. These unmanaged assets can't be monitored with traditional security tools, but they share network connectivity with everything else in the building.

Digital signage players check a lot of the high-risk boxes. They run continuously, often 24/7, giving attackers an always-available target. They frequently use embedded or consumer-grade operating systems that receive infrequent patches. They're typically deployed by AV teams or marketing departments rather than IT security staff, so they bypass standard endpoint protection policies. And they're physically accessible in lobbies, hallways, and retail floors, which creates opportunities for physical tampering on top of remote exploitation.

It's worth pausing on that last point. Most server rooms are locked. Most laptops have endpoint detection software. But a media player tucked behind a display in a public lobby? It might be sitting on an open shelf with an exposed USB port. That's an invitation, and not the kind you want to be sending.

The fix isn't to disconnect everything. It's to architect signage deployments with security built in from the start. That means placing players on isolated VLANs that can't reach the broader corporate network. It means deploying players that don't require inbound ports to be open. It means encrypting and authenticating all communication between the player and the CMS. And honestly, it means choosing a vendor that treats network security as a core product capability rather than something they'll get around to eventually.

Third-Party Integrations Are the Quiet Risk Nobody Audits

A typical enterprise signage deployment pulls data from weather APIs, news feeds, room booking systems, social media platforms, emergency notification services, and sometimes point-of-sale systems. Each integration adds functionality. Each one also adds a trust relationship between systems that most organizations never think to audit.

When your CMS connects to an external data source, it's implicitly trusting that the data coming back is legitimate and that the connection hasn't been tampered with. If someone compromises that external source, or intercepts the connection, they can inject content, redirect displays, or potentially access the CMS itself.

The Canadian restaurant breach made this point clearly. Industry publication invidis reported that the CMS platforms themselves were never actually compromised. The attack exploited a user account on a customer-managed on-premise installation. The technology held up fine. The human and procedural layer around it didn't.

This pattern, where the software is solid but the access management surrounding it creates vulnerability, is one of the most common and most preventable failure modes in signage security. And it's not limited to signage. The 2024 UK Ministry of Defence breach came through a contractor-operated payroll system. The Cencora pharmaceutical breach cascaded into data exposures across nearly a dozen partner companies. Third-party access is where security goes to die if nobody's watching.

Who has API access to your CMS? What data flows between connected systems? Are credentials being rotated? Are connections encrypted? These aren't exotic questions. They're the basics. And most organizations never ask them about their signage provider.

Why Digital Signage Breaches Hit Harder Than Other Attacks

A database breach happens silently behind the scenes. A hacked digital sign? That's immediately visible to every person walking past it.

In 2017, hackers breached digital billboards in Washington, DC and displayed explicit content across public transit stations. Airport displays in Vietnam have been compromised through cyberattacks. Billboards in multiple cities have been hijacked for political propaganda and shock content. Every single one of those incidents went viral, because someone with a phone was standing right there when it happened.

That's the unique damage profile of digital signage cybersecurity failures. The breach is the broadcast. There's no quiet remediation window. By the time your team discovers the problem, photos are already circulating on Reddit, X, and Facebook. The reputational cost can dwarf the technical cost of fixing the actual vulnerability.

For organizations in healthcare, government, financial services, or transportation, the stakes go even higher. A compromised wayfinding display in a hospital could misdirect patients during an emergency. A hijacked airport information board could spread false information and cause panic. A tampered screen in a bank branch erodes the kind of institutional trust that takes years to build. These aren't far-fetched scenarios anymore. They're the logical next step in an attack pattern that's already well established.

The signage industry, as invidis has noted, is "mostly made up of medium-sized companies" where ongoing cybersecurity management services are still uncommon. Compare that to the broader IT industry, where continuous monitoring and managed security are standard practice. That gap between the criticality of signage networks and the maturity of their security is a problem that's only getting wider. And the longer the industry waits to close it, the more damaging the inevitable breaches will be.

What to Actually Look For in a Signage Provider

Security needs to be part of the vendor evaluation, not an afterthought you deal with post-deployment. Here's what matters:
Too many buyers evaluate signage vendors on content management features and price alone. Security rarely makes the shortlist until something goes wrong. The organizations that ask these questions before they sign the contract are the ones that don't end up in the headlines.

Where Corum Digital Stands on Security

Corum Digital recognized years ago that the convergence of cloud platforms, network connectivity, and third-party integrations was fundamentally changing the risk profile of digital signage. While most of the industry was still treating security as an afterthought, Corum pursued and achieved SOC 2 Type II certification, an independently audited standard that most signage providers haven't attempted.

That certification covers both the firmChannel reseller platform and the MediaTile direct-sales brand. It means the security controls aren't just claimed; they're tested, validated, and maintained through ongoing independent audits. For buyers in regulated industries or enterprise environments, working with a certified provider simplifies their own compliance posture and reduces third-party risk.

We'll be covering exactly how SOC 2 Type II certification benefits digital signage buyers (especially those working through reseller channels) in a dedicated article. But the short version is this: in an industry where security certifications are still the exception, not the norm, Corum's early investment in this area gives its customers a measurable advantage.

The Bottom Line

Digital signage has grown from a simple display technology into a networked, cloud-connected, integration-heavy ecosystem. That evolution brought enormous flexibility and real business value. It also introduced cybersecurity risk that most organizations and most signage providers still aren't taking seriously enough.

The 2025 Canadian restaurant breach, the DC billboard hacks, and the relentless wave of IoT attacks all point to the same conclusion: your screens are network endpoints now. They deserve the same security scrutiny as any other connected system in your environment.

Ask the hard questions before you sign. Demand the certifications. And stop treating signage as a marketing purchase that IT doesn't need to weigh in on.

Your screens are only as secure as the vendor behind them.

Further reading: AVIXA's guide to securing digital signage