❝ Another way service providers can respond to the evolving threat environment is by learning to collaborate more closely and share intelligence about threats .❞
APB PANELLISTS
6 NEWS & VIEWS
August 2017
Cybersecurity for broadcast media organisations and professionals
by dr amal punchihewa
Cybersecurity is an increasingly important domain today . Cyber-attacks are increasing all the time , and they are becoming more sophisticated . Media organisations around the world , many of them leading service providers , are spending significant resources to combat cyber-attacks , and yet the number of attacks continues to rise .
Threats are also continuing to increase in both volume and sophistication . The impact is that countries across the world are concerned about breaches of cybersecurity , which could prejudicially impact their sovereignty and their national security . Consequently , cybersecurity law , as a discipline , has emerged .
This article aims to outline emerging issues around cybersecurity for media operations . How are certain terms defined in the discipline of cybersecurity ? What is the significance of cybersecurity and connected issues for media ? How significant is this new discipline of cybersecurity law likely to be in the coming times ? This article attempts to describe complicated technical issues connected with cybersecurity concerns of computer networks and computer systems used in media operations .
ABU activities
During the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union ( ABU ) Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2017 , the challenges and issues surrounding cyber attacks were discussed . The European Broadcasting Union ( EBU ), a sister union of ABU , shared the work it has done to educate and mitigate vulnerabilities due to cyber threats .
In my opinion , cybersecurity needs an approach which addresses three facets : people ( human resources ), organisation and infrastructure . The sense of urgency for cybersecurity has increased due to the emergence of IP everywhere in the media value chain .
Media professionals need to act swiftly as expanding globalisation and new business and business models involve changing global regulatory frameworks , greater sanctions and penalties , intense media and social media focus on privacy and security breaches , and the need for companies to protect IP from violating fundamental rights to privacy .
There are heightened concerns over cyber-attacks ; the need to balance privacy rights against the reporting of cyberattacks , intrusive technology accessing personal data , with new technology driving the importance of privacy considerations ( cloud , IoT ) and moves towards data sovereignty versus cross-border flows .
Various aspects must be addressed to understand vulnerabilities and attacks .
They are : n Distributed denial-of-service ( DDoS ) n Connected devices n Vendor system vulnerabilities n Malware attacks n Ransomware attacks n The cloud With Integrated Broadcast Broadband
( IBB ) systems and connected media devices , security may be loosely organised ( presenting vulnerabilities that are easy to attack ) and leaving room for simple attacks .
Some basics of cyber security for media
Malware can be defined as malicious software or a programme code designed to harm a computer or its data .
In August 2009 , attackers shut down Twitter for nearly three hours , leaving 44 million ‘ tweeters ’ worldwide out of touch . If that does not sound like a big deal , imagine broadcast services such as CNN or Fox News being driven off the air for an afternoon .
A bot network is a collection of remotely controlled bots . Hackers often use bot networks to launch attacks against other computers . Once a hacker has assembled a bunch of machines compromised with bots , the hacker has literally an army of “ bots ” that can be used to attack other machines . Frequently , the bots execute a denial-of-service ( DoS ) attack where so many compromised machines try to connect to a single website that the site itself crashes .
In this type of attack , the goal is to flood the target machine with data packets . The data transmitted is usually harmless in itself , but the large amount of traffic consumes the target machine ’ s bandwidth . In using up the Internet resources available to the target machine , it is prevented from being able to communicate properly . The end-result is the same in all cases . Legitimate users are denied service because of all the bogus traffic .
EBU recommendations The EBU has published five recommendations and is currently working on its
❝ Another way service providers can respond to the evolving threat environment is by learning to collaborate more closely and share intelligence about threats .❞
sixth recommendation on cloud security . The first five published recommendations address the following areas and can be downloaded on the EBU website : n R141 – Mitigation of distributed denial-of-service ( DDoS ) attacks – A DDoS attack occurs when multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system , usually one or more Web servers . Such an attack is often the result of multiple compromised systems ( for example , a botnet ) flooding the targeted system with traffic . n R142 – Cybersecurity on Connected TVs n R143 – Cybersecurity for media vendor systems , software and services n R144 – Cybersecurity governance for media companies n R145 – Mitigating ransomware and malware attacks n R146 – The cloud security recommendation will cover the different perspectives of cloud , including :
• Procedural considerations , including procurement and the definition of business requirements .
• Service architectural considerations , including the description of cloud delivery models and overview of “ shared responsibilities ”, and the required security functionalities to meet security needs ( cloud WAF , cloud networking , cloud hardening , cloud identity management and so on ), as well as best practices .
• An approach for performing a cloud service provider assessment including linkage to existing assessments , data privacy limitations and the impact of existing certifications .
WBU-TC activities
The World Broadcasting Union technical committee ( WBU-TC ) has been working on pooling knowledge and learning to propose best practices , share information on vulnerabilities and make recommendations to media organisations and professionals . It also informs vendors that they also have a responsivity , as future systems
Christopher Slaughter
CEO CASBAA
APB PANELLISTS
Graham Stephens CTO Media City Development , Malaysia will be mainly software-defined .
Actions to mitigate We can carry out various actions to mitigate possible damage due to cyberattacks , of which the following are fundamental : n Security Standards n Best Practices n Governance n Recommendations However , training staff on procedures and increasing the number of security professionals may not be enough to redress the balance , given the prevalence and the nature of emerging attacks , many of which are automated and require automated responses . Service providers and other organisations are turning to technology to deliver such responses , using encryption and sandboxing technologies to protect data from intrusions , and ultimately from data losses .
Sandboxing is often used as a defence against email-borne threats , and offers an isolated environment where suspicious code can be tested and observed . Encryption is the most effective way of protecting data , but just under half of all online traffic is encrypted , partly due to issues concerning authentication .
Collaboration is a key approach , and another way service providers can respond to the evolving threat environment is by learning to collaborate more closely and share intelligence about threats .
In design and architecture , it is required to make clear boundaries between production areas and general office networks . This becomes harder to manage when operations are moved to the public cloud as clear isolation is not possible — the workflows need to be isolated using cybersecurity layers .
Dr Amal Punchihewa is Director , Technology & Innovation , Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union , and Vice-Chair , World Broadcasting Union , Technical Committee . He is also an APB panellist .
Goh Kim Soon Senior Vice-President Broadcast Engineering Mediacorp
Shad Hashmi
Vice-President , Digital Development , Global Markets & Operations , BBC Worldwide Asia