Portable Message Board Security

VDOT had an incident with a contractor-owned portable message board on Friday, June 7, 2024. Someone gained access to the message board and reprogrammed it to include an inappropriate message. The issue was resolved quickly, but this is a great opportunity to ensure that we are following the proper procedures for securing these devices.

• The cabinet of the portable message board SHALL be physically locked.
• The controller inside the cabinet SHALL be password protected.
• The password SHALL NOT be a default password or something simple like 1111 or 0000.

This guidance is for all contractor and state force message boards. 

Construction

• Message board security shall be discussed at the preconstruction meeting.
• Our inspectors should be documenting in their DWR that message board security has been discussed with the contractor when message boards are deployed.

State Force

• All state force message boards shall be locked at all times and password protected.
• The password shall not be written on the inside of the cabinet and shall not be the default password.

Please pass this information along to your staff that may be responsible for message board deployment in any way, construction managers, inspectors, all maintenance staff and district staff.