Most bases have a tablet on the counter that everyone uses. It's convenient, but shared devices create two bad habits: everyone signs in as the same person, or people leave their own accounts signed in for the next crew. Both undermine the point of a briefing record, which is knowing who did what.
Everyone signs in as themselves
A brief is evidence only if it's tied to the person who completed it. On a shared device that means quick switching between accounts, so the oncoming pilot doesn't inherit the outgoing pilot's session.
Fast enough that people actually do it
If signing in takes a minute of typing a long password, people will find a workaround. A good pattern is to sign in with a full password once on a device, then use a short PIN on that device afterwards. The PIN alone is useless on any other device.
- Limit PIN attempts, and fall back to the full password after too many tries.
- Store PINs and passwords using strong, salted hashing, never in plain text.
- Show a clear list of who has signed in on the device, so each person picks their own account.
What administrators need
- Sign a person out everywhere when a device is lost or someone leaves the program.
- Sign everyone out at once after a security concern.
- Disable an account immediately, without waiting for a session to expire.
- A record of sign-ins and failed attempts.
Keep devices current
Shared tablets are often the last to get updates. Web apps that update themselves, and tell the user when a new version is ready, avoid crews briefing on an old version for weeks.
BRIEFED uses password-then-PIN sign-in on known devices, lets admins sign one person or everyone out of every device, and updates itself on every device with a one-tap refresh.