What does HBO and other production companies have in common with Cyber Security? They have all been targets of cyber attacks. You may have heard that recently HBO had hackers break into their computer system. They stole episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ballers, as well as e-mail messages and a summary of an unaired episode of Game Of Thrones. The ransom for the attack was $250,000.
In April Netflix was hacked and had 10 episodes of Orange Is The New Black leaked online. That instance was linked back to a contractor. This is a growing concern for the entertainment industry, or any industry that has many moving parts to an operation. You have a number of people involved in the overall operation from start to finish, many of which are contracted out. According to a former employee HBO does take some measures to protect itself by using two-factor authentication and security awareness training, but that does not handle the freelancers working on the projects.
For movies, according to a study by the University of Maryland and Carnegie Mellon University, stolen movies that appear before going into theaters lose up to 19% of their box office revenue. However, Hollywood is not the only industry with multiple people working on projects, there are many other companies with similar situations that need to be aware of how to better protect themselves.
You should always be aware of anyone who has access to sensitive information or your network. While it may be difficult to completely shield your network from the outside you can take measures to preserve it. A good backup solution can stop Ransomware in its tracks. If you want to know more about how a backup solution can prevent this we can help.
