The media and entertainment industry is currently going through a huge period of disruption. In the span of weeks, productions that would never have been produced remotely before the pandemic, due to strict security requirements, have had to turn to remote production using the cloud. In addition, many projects in post production are going ahead via innovative cloud-based collaboration. All of this has turned the spotlight on cloud security. Production teams need to be able to securely collaborate on files while working remotely, and media organizations need reliable and secure methods to protect their content and revenues.
The media industry is waking up to the realization that emergency situations - like the coronavirus pandemic - that force people to work remotely, open the door to potentially costly security issues. As a result, many media companies are questioning whether it makes sense to seek external support rather than try to stay on top of security issues by themselves.
The good news is that there are several new cloud security technology innovations available for the media industry, many of which have become more important than ever. These include forensic watermarking-as-a-service, key management integration and BYOK (bring your own key), and credentials encryption. All of these security measures can help organizations currently going through this transition phase adapt to new, secure ways of working now and in the future.
Security-As-A-Service
In the media and entertainment industry, the increasing availability of premium Ultra HD and HDR content is driving an even greater need to protect content value. A content owner’s distribution network plays a vital role in delivering premium content across the globe. If there are any content leaks within the distribution network, the damage to content investment and potential revenues is immediate and substantial. As broadband access becomes predominant in more markets, pirates can steal and share high-quality content to viewers.
To combat piracy, forensic watermarking adds a unique watermark or forensic identifier to each media file that’s downloaded. But the cost of setting up a forensic watermarking solution in on-premise workflows has traditionally been high, as well as technologically and time prohibitive, requiring a lot of development work and maintenance of on-premise servers.
The good news is that this capability is now starting to be provided as-a-service, providing value and a level of security that wasn’t possible before. These SaaS offerings can seamlessly integrate forensic watermarking into cloud workflows without the need to deploy additional infrastructure. This means it can be enabled on existing workflows and quickly rolled out to teams with minimal overheads.
Key management integration provides another example. The ability to efficiently manage and control the encryption keys and credentials that act as the gateway to public cloud storage is becoming a more prominent requirement for media companies. With BYOK capabilities, businesses can easily rotate their encryption keys and have full control over revoking keys in the case of any sort of compromise. This is particularly beneficial for smaller companies that don’t have large IT departments, providing a high level of cloud security and protecting valuable content in a cost-efficient way.
Ultimately, more organizations are realizing that as-a-service offerings are the most sustainable options in terms of cloud security. As well as providing flexibility benefits, SaaS services give customers access to the latest security updates and patches to protect against software vulnerabilities with no interruption to business continuity. This enables them to quickly respond to threats without the costs that come from managing this process themselves.
Driving Internal Compliance
No conversation about security would be complete without addressing the cultural aspect. In many cases, security issues are caused by ineffective internal compliance processes that are difficult to maintain and implement. After all, the best encryption in the world can’t keep data safe if employees resort to writing down and passing around passwords in an attempt to make their lives easier.
This people aspect is where security often breaks down. Employees will naturally look to complete processes in the easiest and fastest way possible, so adding extra security steps to workflows will likely be ineffective in the long run – as well as presenting IT management complications.
That’s why security capabilities that are integrated into existing workflows are so effective. Building workflows with inherent compliance practices and controls – rather than something that needs to be applied in addition to existing workflows – can ease the burden on media companies when it comes to implementing and maintaining their own internal compliance practices. As well as reducing the cost and complexity for IT departments, this will make it easier for employees to meet compliance requirements.
If it wasn’t already, security now has to be a key consideration for media organizations of all sizes. Recent events have significantly accelerated the remote working trend, requiring additional layers of cloud security in key workflows to ensure that valuable content and data remains protected. The need is clearly there, placing the onus on businesses to put cloud security at the center of their operations.
James Wilson leads engineering and operations for IBM Aspera, the high-speed file transfer technology that delivers rich collaboration, delivery, automation, monitoring, and advanced infrastructure administration capabilities to some of the world's largest content producers. His technical expertise includes scalable microservice-based systems, network and content security, hybrid-cloud architecture, systems engineering, networking, and continuous delivery.