Media and Entertainment CyberSecurity
Protect Content and Sensitive Data Against Advanced CyberSecurity Threats
Overview
Since the hack of a well-known media and entertainment company several years ago—which resulted in lost data, major impacts on productivity and operations, and embarrassing leaks—content security has been front and center in the media and entertainment industry. Here, content is not just intellectual property, it is the lifeblood of many media and entertainment companies. Theft of content can have a major impact on the profits that a particular artist can generate and the reputation of the companies involved.
Media and entertainment companies also face the same cybersecurity challenges as other consumer-facing industries—protecting customer data, demonstrating compliance, improving operational efficiency, and avoiding downtime. They also may operate at temporary locations like entertainment venues or pop-up retail operations. In all these instances, cyberattacks on the media and entertainment industry can wreak havoc on the guest experience—and have serious impact on the bottom line.
Corporate Infrastructure
The corporate IT network at media and entertainment companies houses important data related to finance, HR, sales and marketing, as well as critical intellectual property. Employees often use mobile devices in their work, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are increasingly common. Websites and mobile app-based customer interactions determine the quality of customers’ impressions of and experience with the company. Securing corporate resources is critical to the business, but is becoming more complex as endpoints proliferate and networks become more widely distributed. This complexity is compounded by an increasingly advanced threat landscape.
To counter these trends, media and technology companies need to build a simplified security architecture by breaking down security silos and achieving full integration across the corporate infrastructure. This enables centralized visibility and control and automation of security processes.
The Fortinet Security Fabric delivers a broad, integrated, and automated security solution that delivers end-to-end integration for media and entertainment companies—from cybersecurity to physical security to voice communications, from endpoint and IoT devices to multiple clouds, and from headquarters to multiple branch locations. Here, centralized visibility and policy controls enable automation of threat detection and response, compliance monitoring and reporting, and more.
FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs provide the foundation for the Security Fabric. Integrated security analytics and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools enable a proactive response to advanced threats. Advanced endpoint protection and network access control (NAC) tools protect endpoint and IoT devices. And network-based video security and voice communications can also be integrated into the Security Fabric for comprehensive protection.
Numerous additional Fortinet cybersecurity tools and services integrate seamlessly into the Fabric, along with dozens of third-party solutions delivered by Fabric Partners. Additionally, an open ecosystem and extensive application programming interface (API) tools make the integration of other third-party tools possible.
The Fortinet Security Fabric enables media and entertainment companies to protect their entire infrastructure through centralized visibility and control. This unlocks automation and helps bolster protection for sensitive data.
FortiFone IP telephones provide a feature-rich experience with high-quality audio and dedicated keys for the most common features. FortiGate NGFWs utilize purpose-built security processors to help companies deliver top-rated protection and high-performance inspection of clear-texted and encrypted traffic. They are available in multiple form factors. FortiManager supports network operations use cases for centralized management, best practices compliance, and workflow automation to provide better protection against breaches. FortiAnalyzer provides analytics-powered cybersecurity and log management to provide better detection against breaches. FortiSIEM simplifies security information and event management by delivering visibility, automated response, and fast remediation in a single solution. FortiSandbox offers a powerful combination of advanced detection, automated mitigation, actionable insight, and flexible deployment to stop targeted attacks and subsequent data loss. FortiInsight user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) technology detects behavioral anomalies and noncompliant activity that may represent possible insider threats. FortiDeceptor complements an organization’s existing breach protection strategy by deceiving, exposing, and eliminating attacks originating from internal and external sources before real damage occurs. FortiGuard Labs uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that gathers and analyzes over 100 billion security events daily and shares that threat intelligence across the Fortinet Security Fabric, enabling organizations to keep pace with the advanced threat landscape
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Secure Branch Locations
Media and entertainment companies often have multiple locations, including retail stores, movie theaters, event venues, and theme parks. Providing secure and reliable connections between these branches and headquarters is critical. Connectivity to these locations was traditionally provided by expensive multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuits, but this infrastructure is anything but agile in a time when network traffic is rapidly increasing—mostly due to increased adoption of cloud services. This can result in latency when users at branch locations use cloud-based applications.
In response, many media and entertainment companies are looking at software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) technology as a way to address these issues. Security is a big consideration for those moving in that direction, as the technology enables network traffic to travel on the public internet. Ideally, the SD-WAN technology would have security built into the solution, but many SD-WAN offerings require the purchase of another point product to provide security.
FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) include secure SD-WAN technology built into the NGFW itself, allowing network traffic to travel on the public internet—or even over a virtual WAN (vWAN) within select public clouds. To extend this security protection to the branch infrastructure, companies can deploy Fortinet SD-Branch solutions. These enable secure networking at branches and consistent security coverage from the internet to the wireless network to the switching infrastructure.
Fortinet solutions for secure branches enable companies to provide secure, high-performance networking with branches without adding significant cost or complexity to the security architecture. Doing so bolsters network performance at branches and helps protect the network against intrusions that enter through branch locations.
Customer Experience
For media and entertainment companies that host consumers for events, the on-site experience is paramount. Guest Wi-Fi must work seamlessly for customer satisfaction. Glitches in these services might not ruin the evening from the company’s perspective, but it can degrade the brand reputation of the company putting on the show and the artists performing—even if the network is not their responsibility. Of course, it is also critical that public Wi-Fi does not provide access to sensitive corporate resources.
Public Wi-Fi is sometimes deployed as a separate service, which is often protected by a separate, siloed security solution. But such an approach increases cybersecurity risk as well as the risk of performance issues. The best approach is to deploy public Wi-Fi as an integrated part of the organization’s larger security architecture.
The Fortinet Security Fabric enables an integrated approach that integrates Wi-Fi with the overall security architecture. Wireless access points, Ethernet LAN switches, and presence and positioning analytics enable companies to maintain secure Wi-Fi and provide the best customer service experience possible. Intent-based segmentation functionality in FortiGate NGFWs ensures that the public Wi-Fi network remains partitioned from corporate assets.
Fortinet provides an optimal and secure Wi-Fi experience for guests by:
- Integrating it with the rest of the security architecture for centralized visibility and control
- Providing integrated switching and access point hardware
- Delivering analytics that helps companies enhance the visitor experience
Content Protection
Protecting a media and entertainment company’s core intellectual property is vital, and failure to do so can have big ramifications for revenue, brand value, and profitability. At a time when trust is no longer static, organizations must move beyond usernames and passwords as gatekeepers for access to core intellectual property and other confidential data.
To limit access to assets only to those who need it for legitimate business purposes, media and entertainment companies must deploy a multilayered defense that starts with a well-segmented network, ensuring that data is categorized according to business need. Both users and devices should be inspected at every access attempt using multi-factor authentication as well as behavior-based approaches to identify threat actors who have stolen a user’s credentials.
The Fortinet Security Fabric enables intelligent segmentation and several layers of trust verification for comprehensive protection of media content. Intent-based segmentation functionality in FortiGate NGFWs enables a flexible, business-based approach to segmenting the network. Network access control (NAC) helps protect the network from unsecure devices that try to access it. Identity and access management tools help verify users, while user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) watches for anomalies in their behavior. Deception technology tricks adversaries into revealing themselves. Finally, sandbox analysis technology identifies unknown malware as it attempts to enter the network.
The Fortinet Security Fabric helps media and entertainment companies segment the network intelligently to provide granular levels of access, as well as a zero-trust approach that inspects every user and device every time they seek network access.
Advanced Threat Protection
The high visibility and perceived deep pockets of media and entertainment companies make them an especially attractive target for both newer and older threats, including ransomware. Law enforcement urges organizations not to pay ransoms in such cases. However, if a company’s IT systems are shut down until a ransom is paid, management may not have a choice. Protection against such advanced threats is vital for every media and entertainment organization.
FortiGuard Labs collects intelligence from a large global network of firewalls. They have also maintained an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-evolving detection system (SEDS) for nearly eight years. During that time, the SEDS has refined its algorithms using machine learning (ML), resulting in extremely accurate, real-time identification of unknown threats. Sandbox analysis and browser isolation tools provide additional layers of protection. Additionally, the Fortinet Advanced Malware Protection service provides broad protection against malware-based attacks.
Tying together these different sources of threat intelligence, the Fortinet Security Fabric protects media and entertainment organizations against advanced threats like ransomware by delivering real-time, robust threat intelligence using AI and ML, enabling automated response to threats that move at machine speed.
Adaptive Cloud Security
Most media and entertainment organizations now operate in multiple public and private clouds. In many cases, companies take the “path of least resistance” and rely on each cloud provider’s suite of security tools. The result is a different security silo for each cloud, and no connection between the security architectures of the hybrid cloud and the on-premises infrastructure. In the end, this significantly reduces operational efficiency while diminishing security.
Protecting cybersecurity for these assets is critical, meaning that an organization’s integrated security architecture must extend from the data center to multiple clouds. Tools that protect the various clouds should seamlessly connect the entire infrastructure, from the data center to the cloud.
Part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, Fortinet Adaptive Cloud Security solutions break down silos between clouds and enable consistent policy management and centralized visibility of the entire infrastructure. They feature native integration with all major public cloud providers, broad protection to cover all elements of the attack surface, and management and automation features that enable consistent, timely threat detection and response, as well as automated reporting.
Fortinet Adaptive Cloud Security solutions empower media and entertainment companies to confidently deploy any application in any cloud at any time. Seamless integration and consistent procedures across the entire infrastructure increase efficiencies for cybersecurity teams while reducing cybersecurity risk to the organization.
Data Protection and Compliance
Safeguarding customers’ personal and financial information—and demonstrating compliance with those goals—are top priorities in the media and entertainment space. This responsibility also extends to employee and contractor data. Failure to comply with regulations can incur significant penalties from regulators and the payment card industry, including the possibility of being unable to accept card payments. However, the degradation of a company’s reputation and brand value can be even more costly.
Solving these challenges, the Fortinet Security Fabric provides an end-to-end, integrated security architecture with centralized control and reporting. This ensures consistent policy management across the infrastructure and eliminates manual audit preparation. Integrated tools for security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) and security analytics tools provide customizable automated reporting. Additionally, the Fortinet Security Rating Service helps companies improve compliance over time by providing a score that illustrates a company’s security posture compared with regulations, standards, and peer organizations—and provides recommended best practices to improve that score.
Fortinet solutions support data protection and compliance at media and entertainment organizations by:
- Providing end-to-end integration to enable automated reporting
- Delivering insights that help organizations improve their compliance posture over time
Guide alle soluzioni
Media and Entertainment Cyber Security Challenges
Content Security
For media and entertainment companies, content is key intellectual property. It can include finished products like music files, videos, and movies, but also material that is never intended to be public—scripts, contract negotiations, scenes that wind up on the cutting room floor, and proposed content that is never produced. After Sony was attacked by nation-state actors, protection of proprietary content is job one for the industry. Pirated content affects companies’ bottom line, and the release of confidential content can seriously impact their brand reputation—and that of the artists they are working with.
Protecting Customer Data
Regulations like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)—and standards like the Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework (PCI SSF)—are especially important for media and entertainment companies. Many of them are in possession of the personal information of millions of people via relatively small transactions. Organizations must be able to demonstrate compliance with multiple regulations and standards without redeploying staff from strategic initiatives to preparing audit reports.
Customer Experience
Digital innovation in the media and entertainment industry is focused heavily on the customer experience, with rapid consumer adoption of streaming services, online gaming, and even virtual reality. These services place heavy reliance on cloud-based services, IoT devices, and mobile networks, and interruptions in service can degrade a company’s brand reputation. Similarly, the inability to get tickets for an event in real time, or technical snafus at the event site, can ruin an experience that might have cost hundreds of dollars. If such an experience is multiplied across hundreds or thousands of customers, substantial losses of revenue are possible.
Cost
Many media and entertainment offerings require a very large up-front investment before consumer sales bring profitability. As a result, minimizing costs across the company is an ongoing priority. Security investments must be prioritized according to the organization’s risk tolerance, but it is unwise to defer the investments necessary to protect content and customer data. Exacerbating the problem is the cybersecurity skills shortage, which can make it difficult to fill certain roles, and if it is possible, quite expensive.
Visibility
Many media and entertainment companies have embraced cutting-edge technology to enhance customer experience. As a result, the attack surface is growing and increasingly more difficult to protect. The adoption of services and applications in multiple clouds and the increased use of mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices for things like ticket scanning make the network more complex. The problem is aggravated as media and entertainment companies deploy more and more point security products to cover the gaps created by the expanding attack surface. The resulting security silos obfuscate visibility, increasing operational inefficiencies and ratcheting up risk.
Operational Efficiency
Lack of integration across the different security elements, combined with architectural fragmentation, increases operational inefficiencies—for the cybersecurity team and for other departments. Without integration, many security workflows must be managed manually. These manual processes often interrupt daily business and potentially impact operations and profitability. Architectural silos also cause other problems: increased operational expenses because of overlapping functionalities in software licenses, the work required to maintain multiple licensing contracts, and troubleshooting difficulties when something goes wrong and vendors blame each other.
Fortinet Differentiators for Media and Entertainment Industry Cybersecurity
Integrated Platform
Fortinet delivers a flexible platform for building an end-to-end, integrated security architecture for media and entertainment companies—from the data center to the endpoint to multiple clouds. An open application programming interface (API) and Fabric Connectors help integrate third-party tools to accommodate prior investments and niche protection.
High Performance and Low Latency
FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) provide the industry’s best performance during secure sockets layer (SSL)/transport layer security (TLS) inspection and experience extremely low latency rates, helping ensure that vital, encrypted employee, customer, content, and corporate data is available without delay.
Branch Location Networking and Security
Fortinet offers a comprehensive software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) and secure networking for branch locations and temporary locations like event venues and filming sets. They eliminate the need for expensive multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) bandwidth, provide optimal security, and improve network performance.
Insider Threat Protection
Fortinet delivers a multilayered, integrated solution to guard against insider threats in the media and entertainment industry. Identity and access management technology helps verify users, and network access control (NAC) keeps track of devices. Intent-based segmentation helps ensure that users have access only to what they need. Deception technology lures attackers into identifying themselves, and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) identifies behavioral anomalies in those seeking access.
Robust Threat Intelligence
FortiGuard Labs uses an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-evolving detection system (SEDS) that has refined its algorithms using machine learning (ML) for nearly eight years. The result is extremely accurate, real-time identification of zero-day threats. Combined with intelligence from a global network of sensors, customers have immediate access to comprehensive threat data.
Industry Leadership
Fortinet has won accolades from researchers and industry analysts, including recognition as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls.
