Download The Secure Network white paper here.
When a digital signage network goes live, two things tend to happen simultaneously. The marketing team starts planning what they can do with it. The IT team starts working out how to manage it securely.
These two conversations rarely happen in the same room. They should.
Digital signage is not passive technology. Every display in a managed network is driven by an internet-connected device, enrolled in a content management platform, receiving updates remotely, and in many deployments, integrated with live data sources like point-of-sale systems, pricing feeds, and loyalty platforms. That is a meaningful attack surface and the consequences of getting security wrong fall on both teams.
For IT, the risk is a fleet of devices that does not meet the organisation's security standards, managed by a vendor whose practices have never been independently verified. For marketing, the risk is more immediate: incorrect pricing on a menu board, unauthorised content on a flagship screen, or a data integration that exposes customer information. Both scenarios are avoidable. Both require the same foundation.
The two questions worth asking any digital signage provider
Before committing to a provider, two questions cut through most of the noise.
The first is about the operating system. What is running on the devices, and how is it managed? A general-purpose operating system on a consumer-grade device carries a broader attack surface, irregular patch management, and limited remote control. ChromeOS is built differently. It is designed on Zero Trust principles, verifies its own integrity on every boot, isolates applications from the core system, and updates automatically without interrupting content playback. Devices are locked to a single management platform on enrolment, remove one from a location and it cannot be re-enrolled elsewhere. These are not features that can be retrofitted onto a general-purpose OS. They are architectural.
As a Google Chrome Enterprise Recommended partner, Entwined's solution has been independently validated against Google's technical requirements for security and performance. That accreditation is not a commercial arrangement. It requires passing specific technical testing.
The second question is about governance. Does the provider hold current ISO 27001 certification, and can they prove it? ISO 27001 is the internationally recognised standard for Information Security Management Systems. Certification requires a formal, documented framework governing how security risks are identified, assessed, and controlled across the organisation's people, processes, and technology. It requires an independent audit by an accredited certification body. It requires ongoing surveillance audits to confirm the standard is being maintained.
Entwined has held ISO 27001 certification for over two years. Our most recent surveillance audit confirmed our processes remain current. For IT teams conducting vendor risk assessments, that certification is documented evidence, not a marketing claim.
Why this matters to marketing teams, not just IT
Security is usually framed as an IT concern. In a digital signage context, that framing misses half the picture.
A properly secured network is a stable network. ChromeOS devices update without interrupting campaigns. Remote device management means issues are diagnosed and resolved without a technician visit. Consistent policy enforcement across a fleet of hundreds of devices means the network behaves the same way at every location, every time.
That operational stability is what makes ambitious content programmes viable. Dynamic content tied to live data, dayparted messaging, location-specific campaigns, none of these work reliably on a network that is poorly managed or inconsistently patched. The same properties that make ChromeOS the right choice for IT are what give marketing teams the reliable platform they need to do more with their network.
The shared cost of getting it wrong
Organisations that deploy digital signage without establishing a proper security foundation tend to discover the consequences gradually. IT inherits a device management problem they did not plan for. Marketing finds the network cannot support the content programmes they were promised. Both teams compromise, the investment underperforms, and the risk exposure remains.
The alternative is not complicated. It requires choosing a provider that has made verifiable investments in both device-level security and organisational governance, and built a managed service designed to work for both teams from the start.
There is considerably more to this than a single blog post can cover. The relationship between security, operational stability, and creative capability in enterprise digital signage networks is the subject of our latest white paper.
It is written for both IT and marketing audiences, and covers what a properly secured digital signage network looks like in practice and what it makes possible for the organisations that build one.
Download The Secure Network white paper here.