PC Security Advice & Resources

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PC Security for Kiosks is a big deal for sure.

Hacks into PCs bring to mind words like “Payload”.  We manage this website and just the security threats to your basic WordPress website is unprecedented.

A few days ago a new “Attack Platform” showed up for WordPress.

The first inclination is to shrug it off a bit and point out we speak of a website, yet many kiosks are running content and are connected to that very infrastructure. Thus they are at risk.

There are a couple of “goes without saying” precautions that should be considered:

  • Use a lockdown. There are several from KioWare, PROVISIO, KioskSimple, TIPS and KIOSK Core.  These all “lock down” the common entry points like when the OS boots up, where the browser goes, and at what privilege level a user has available (and it won’t be root or admin).
  • Use a secure OS.  Powering off a machine and back up is a critical juncture.  Are there USB ports exposed, and which are enabled?  Windows Embedded, POSReady and other windows iterations are designed for this industrial type use (also known as unattended).
  • Physical access to the machine and PC needs to be controlled.
  • “Tweaking” windows with assigned access and policies is fine but it usually takes multiple tries to finally lock down some of what the lockdowns lock down.
  • Windows Patch management (or Linux) — how are you going to implement that remotely and unattended?
  • How do you manage all those terminals.
  • What about the backoffice?  Many “breaches” are into the datastores that the kiosks are building/using back in the office. Security begins at home…
  • Do you have contractors logging into your network?  Take some advice from Target. Eliminate it or force them to log in only on secured terminals, not cheap PCs running freeware Malware protection (which doesn’t always update).

That’s some quick advice.

Here are some interesting and useful whitepapers out there.

 

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