-- WannaCry Ransomware: Could it happen to your Media Production Company?
If you have any centralised data storage or computer resource, like network attached storage (NAS), you should be very concerned indeed about CyberCrime.
You can't have failed to miss the WannaCry Ransomware cyber-attack that has hit 150 countries, 1000's of computers and brought several hospitals in the UK to a halt (cancelled operations being amongst the issues). The temptation reading about the attack is simply to think, I keep my computers up to date so it couldn't happen to me. Or, my critical data is on a NAS device so I don't overly care if a PC gets compromised . Think again.
Cybercrime is on the rise and sooner or later we will all come under attack. Some attacks are generic, like WannaCry, but other attacks are highly targeted. And, whether we are in large companies like Sony Pictures with their well-publicised issues (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Pictures_hack) or a small company like my own that had emails going from the CEO to the CFO asking for bank transfers to be carried out (they were of course fraudulent) we are all potential targets.
And here is a big issue: Media Production companies are particularly vulnerable because many of them keep all, or a significant portion, of their information assets in very few places. This is especially true where access is via unsecure protocols and procedures.
Take this scenario. Your storage provider was running a great deal for you if you just buy one huge NAS device. Not minding the future, you decided to consolidate the bulk of your information onto that single solution. A hacker compromises a PC with access to the NAS / SAN and that PC happens to have access to a large number of files. It could be a disgruntled employee, or a kid in a bedroom 2,000 miles away, but now the hacker runs an encrypt or destroy app. It doesn't need to take long. A targeted application doesn't need to encrypt every byte - just enough to make the files it touches unreadable. And to therefore lock them. Just for added measure it encrypts the well-known metadata controller of your storage device. And, now it destroys itself. Getting an unencrypt key is nigh-impossible. Hey presto. Your millions of dollars of assets are now under ransom, but for just one of those millions you might get an unlock key. If you are lucky .
I'm sure there are worse scenarios, but if you believe that this type of attack won't happen in the future then you are wrong. Look at Sony. It won't be a one-off. It's already happening now to other media production companies.
But strategies to defeat this type of hack are possible. Firstly, disaster recovery systems, replication, and back-up are key to being able to getting data back if this occurs. But a deep and clever hack attack may target those systems as well. Care must be taken not to backup or replicate the hacked data. Another challenge is that as a large media producer handling potentially Petabytes of data, backing up everything is sometimes , well let's say asynchronous . That is to say a subset of the data might not yet be backed up.
Another strategy is to keep your data behind a firewall. A very strong firewall. And then to only let out copies of data that are for (e.g.,) media editing, checking back in edited versions. This is the strategy promoted by object storage when it sits behind an object storage API.
Speaking to Francisco Ontoso, CTO of Object Matrix who provide MatrixStore an object storage solution for the media industries, he stated:
MatrixStore has been proven in a major real-world hack against a production company to have not only kept data safe during that attack but also to have tracked/audited that the data was safe. There simply wasn't a filesystem interface for the hackers to walk through and the security on the API meant the hackers would have had to have had access to a special set of keys. We call this Digital Content Governance. No system is full-proof but can digital content governance provides extra layers of security.
In your Digital Content Governance strategy the following considerations should be included:
Disaster recovery and business continuity via replication
Full protected audit of actions on the cluster (including reads, writes, updates and administration actions)
Lock-down media library access to API only, therefore restricting access from common protocols (e.g., filesystems) and protecting access to only those with security credentials
If Samba (SMB) is to be used mounting it externally avoids some of the security holes. Furthermore, the Samba instance can be given access to only a subset of the assets (e.g., not the full media-archive)
These and many other features are detailed in MatrixStore security datasheet.
The OM View: How to keep your data safe
Gone are the days when data sat disconnected to the rest of the organisation on tapes on shelves. They weren't that good anyway. Fires have burned down many an archive.
However, things are getting tougher. Too much cyber-crime has paid and the recent cyber attack will only make criminals and malicious individuals more targeted in the way they attack. You have a lot of wealth in your data. That data is vulnerable.
Avoid having access to large swathes of data from a single PC / login. It is a major security hole.
Think about your backup, disaster recovery and replication strategies with the hackers in mind. The hackers will compromise a PC at some-point. What could a determined hacker do from there?
Think about keeping data safe in purpose built storage. Exposing everything via a filesystem is extremely dangerous. Consider on-premises object storage for this. Get into the mind of the hacker when forming your digital content governance strategy.
Normally at this point it is common to sa
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- WannaCry Ransomware: Could it happen to your Media Production Company?
