News

By Chris Tribbey

A series of well-publicized security incidents over the past twelve months have put the media and entertainment industry on notice that its operations and content are prime targets for cyberattacks.

The result has been an unprecedented focus on security processes and solutions among the Hollywood studios, record labels, game companies and publishers, according to security experts speaking during a panel at last week’s Hollywood IT Society (HITS) Broadcast IT Summit in New York.

Tom Darlington, strategic services executive for global media and entertainment at IBM, pointed to a recent executive-level IBM cyber security survey, which saw 88% of chief information security officers saying their security budgets have increased. But more than that, what the IBM study found, for the first time for many companies, was that security is being viewed as essentially strategic to the overall enterprise.

“It’s great to have wonderful tools, but are we using them? It’s great to have wonderful skill sets, but are we using them, across our enterprise? I really do think that security can lay the foundation for real media transformation, for monetizing the business,” he said. “The No. 1 thing we’re seeing right now is do we have the right programs, do we have the right response, the right baseline of where we’re going, and the right skill sets?”

According to Joel Sloss, program manager of security, privacy, and compliance for Microsoft Azure, so many attacks originate from seemingly simple mistakes: clicking on the wrong link, or using an easily guessed password, resulting in “very sophisticated attacks taking advantage of fairly simple channels,” he said.

The answer is mandatory levels of security training, from the senior executives to the one-time contractors, and being proactive instead of reactive with your cyber security, Sloss said. “Instead of waiting for someone to attack and revealing a flaw, you attack yourself, you assume that there’s someone already attacking your system,” he said.

“You’re going to be attacked, it’s guaranteed. You’ve already been attacked and you may not know it. Have a plan in place to confront it.”

According to Cyril Rickelton-Abdi, senior director of content security for Turner Broadcasting. the proliferation of devices to view content on and the availability of more streaming and OTT services have also opened up Hollywood to more security concerns. Combine that with internal issues (like requests to access and watch content outside of safe security protocols) and the challenges are immense.

“It’s something pretty new for entertainment companies,” he said. “People wait at the gate, at your own servers, doing everything they can to get their hands on your content.”

Darlington added that a critical part of the security process is understanding what you’re up against: hackers today are well funded and have every incentive to beat whatever security barriers you’ve put in place. Media and entertainment companies must think like their enemy, define their critical assets, and adapt quickly.

“The challenge for all of us in security and media is can we keep up with them, with skills, tooling and the changes in media?” he said. “It’s a tough challenge, and it takes a village to do this.”

For more coverage of the HITS Broadcast IT Summit click here and here.