For most of us, playing a card game at a Casino, watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster movie on the big screen, binge-watching the favourite web series on NetFlix, visiting a theme park, and listening to the trending music tracks on the Radio are some of the most popular forms of recreation. Entertainment has many positive effects on the minds of the people―it can help experience serenity, peace of mind & joy—one can escape from the hustle and bustle of the chaotic city life through entertainment. This also is one of the main reasons why it is the most thriving industry in the USA and the rest of the world.
Media & Entertainment Industry
The Media & Entertainment (M&E) Industry includes multiple segments such as Movies/Films, Music, Television, Internet, Advertising, Radio, & Gaming.
In recent times, there has been a growing trend of globalization of the M&E Industry worldwide―language is no longer seen as a barrier and the geographic boundaries for online entertainment are narrowing across the world. With the boom of digital innovations like Cloud-based Services, Internet of Things (IoT), & High-Speed Mobile Streaming, online entertainment has gotten much more advanced than ever before and has garnered the attention of young denizens from all over the world. However, this advancement of technology brings with it a new level of complexity in managing the Identities, Password Authentication & Privileged Access Management of the user accounts in a hybrid cloud environment
Here’s a real-time example of a security breach―on Nov 12 of 2019, Disney + Streaming Service was hacked by cyberhackers who stole thousands of user account details and sold them at various hacking forums for US$3 to US$ 11 each.
Risks in the Media & Entertainment Industry
To make things worse, the businesses in this industry are impacted by unforeseen events such as leaked content due to insider attacks, sabotage by internal & external users, and state-sponsored attacks. Most movies and soapbox operas are inspired by political ideologies and religious beliefs and hence they become easy targets for state-sponsored attacks.
Online Entertainment Is Vulnerable to Security Breaches
The online entertainment segment is most vulnerable to security attacks, and they can happen via:
- Phishing emails sent with malicious links for stealing user credentials.
- Ransomware malware sent for accessing users’ critical files, cyberhackers encrypt the files and ask for a huge ransom in Bitcoins in return for decrypting them.
- Security breaches caused by internal employees for stealing intellectual property.
Challenges Faced by M&E organisations
To be able to stay free from potential security breaches, the IT enterprises in the Entertainment industry must confront a few challenges. First, safeguarding the Intellectual property of media & entertainment firms is paramount to ensure their success. Imagine the plight of a media production house that has invested astronomical amounts of dollars into the making of a movie and, just months before the release date, all confidential data such as movie footage files, scripts, and music clips are leaked by internal employees to the outside world. Alarming, isn’t it? The financial losses associated with such insider attacks in the M&E industry can turn out to be very expensive for the media firm.
Second, most media firms are huge in size and operate across multiple locations; they usually comprise of Theatres, Theme Parks, & Retail Stores spread across different areas. There must be a good network connectivity across these locations for streamlining the operations and ensuring a great customer experience.
Third, most of them operate in a distributed environment: on-prem, in private, in public, and hybrid environments and another peculiar thing about them is they often have multiple cloud service providers. Thus, security teams require a unified policy with centralised visibility for managing their cloud deployments.
Lastly, compliance with the local regulatory laws is vital for avoiding hefty penalties that arise out of non-compliance. Therefore, a secure Identity Governance platform is inevitable for meeting the compliance requirements.
Security Measures To Stay Free From cyberattacks
So, it is vital for Media & Entertainment firms to have proper security measures to prevent and fight security breaches made by both internal & external attackers. Some of the popular security measures that are taken by production houses to stay protected are:
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- Threat Monitoring: Detect anomalies caused by security attacks via threat analytics tools.
- Threat Hunting: Look for malware and possible security breaches that may arise.
- Threat Intelligence: Identify threats in advance from insider attackers and external attackers by using AI and ML-driven tools.
- Identity Management: Users’ identity lifecycle management, SSO with MFA, & Privileged Access Management
- Training programs: Upskill your cybersecurity team with the emergent new technologies in cybersecurity.
Speak to our experts today to get the best cybersecurity solution for your media production house. We can save you tons of dollars by offering state-of-the-art security measures and an automated, intelligent & reliable Identity Security platform that supports a solid Identity Governance framework for ensuring enterprise-grade security and compliance with all the legal laws.