18 MANAGEMENT
December 2016
Integrity and trust at the core of big data
Steve Christian is senior vice president , Marketing at Verimatrix .
BY STEVE CHRISTIAN
Video operators have long grown accustomed to protecting their critical assets from piracy and revenue theft , which up until recently , primarily concerned the actual content itself . However , it is just as critical to safeguard all service and customer data that indicate trends , such as video quality , content consumption , individual subscriber preferences and behaviour , as well as broader audience trends .
Unlike video content , the data contains information that operators can exploit to improve their own services and / or sell to third parties . As a result , integrity and privacy of video analytics data will become critical . Any breach occurring during either storage or transfer can have a serious impact on trust by customers .
Revenue security systems already in place using technology from providers such as Verimatrix have become sources of prime analytics data . This is by virtue of exploiting the unique position in the content ecosystem occupied by these vendors through delivering keys or licences for specific assets to end-devices for each subscriber .
Verimatrix , for example , can see what is being watched on every device , and as a result , can deliver a detailed view of content consumed all the way down to individual households and devices . For online video accessed via connected devices , there is also scope to drill down further , right to the individual user . Additionally , revenue security platforms are able to harness encrypted data in transit as they alone have the ability to decrypt it , which can be used to measure or even apply quality of service ( QoS ) for specific premium content .
Given this inherent link , big data is a natural extension for revenue security specialists like Verimatrix . We have adapted and extended our existing security technology and ecosystem to cater to the collection , storage and analysis of different types of data , recognising that this brings some unique challenges .
Making a case for data security
Indeed , the ability to monetise video analytics data relies largely on its security , which of course is compromised in the event of any
Through solutions such as the Verspective Intelligence Center , Verimatrix is expanding its footprint beyond traditional revenue security to include compliance and data analytics .
eavesdropping or theft . The reality of this risk was highlighted in 2015 when US-based TV maker Vizio was a victim of a simulated attack staged by researchers from Czech software company Avast to demonstrate the need to secure data pathways on connected devices .
The researchers successfully executed a “ man-in-the-middle ” attack that intercepted a viewer ’ s data stream , enabling them to receive viewership information from the device and , alarmingly , gain permission to control functions on the television .
This incident also underlined the potential threat posed by increased connectivity to the cloud within content ecosystems . Such cloud connectivity is being driven by rising operational costs and scale issues , which call for a move from hardwarebased service distribution to virtualised cloud-based operations . Irrespective of whether data is stored on or offsite , data increasingly flows through potentially vulnerable software-defined networks in the cloud .
Within such networks , video analytics data flows in the opposite direction to the content , obligating operators to secure data back from the device to the server . Such data may end up not just on the operator ’ s own servers perhaps for providing recommendations , but also with third parties , such as advertisers seeking to leverage digital ad inventory .
This means that data must comply with relevant regulations from bodies such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau ( IAB ), which develops standards for online advertising . The main implication here is that operators
We are in effect expanding our footprint beyond traditional revenue security to include compliance and data analytics , which we believe will enable pay-TV operators in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere to thrive in the increasingly competitive markets for video consumption across multiple screens . must protect not just content and entitlements , but also the integrity and security of census-level data provided to partner stakeholders such as advertisers .
It is not just relationships with partners or immediate customers that are at stake , but the whole reputation of the company and its brand . This has been well proven by a number of high-profile incidents such as the cyber-attack on UK broadband operator TalkTalk in November 2015 , which the company admitted resulted in immediate losses of US $ 75 million as more than 100,000 customers deserted .
Overcoming regulatory inconsistencies in APAC
Operators of all kinds are increasingly exposed to such breaches and face ever stiffer sanctions from regulators for non-compliance in most of the world ’ s leading markets .
Recently , data privacy compliance has risen rapidly up the agenda in Asia-Pacific , catching up with Europe and North America . For example , Hong Kong ’ s Privacy Commissioner reported a 48 % increase in complaints and a doubling of enforcement notices for 2013 , the latest year for which data is available . More generally across the region , there has been a greater willingness by privacy regulators to " name and shame " businesses that fall foul of the new laws .
In contrast to North America and Europe , the problem in Asia-Pacific is compounded by divergent compliance requirements across the region as each country interprets the common underlying principles differently to suit their agendas and circumstances . The result is a patchwork of compliance requirements across the region , varying over key factors such as export controls and whether consumers need to optin or whether they must opt out to prevent their data being collected . This is , of course , a particular challenge for operators serving customers in more than one Asia- Pacific country . The issue has at least been recognised across the region and led to the formation of the APEC Privacy Framework to lobby for and promote easier cross-border data transfers .
The ultimate aim is to foster public confidence in data analytics and in turn encourage more consumers to opt in , which is the outcome operators want . But this process is still ongoing and meanwhile , many Asian governments are still acting in their own perceived interests rather than focusing on harmonisation .
Partnering with a specialist
The ultimate objective of compliance is to provide a sound framework for big data analytics that will deliver insights and enable actions across operators ’ three core business objectives :
1Acquiring new subscribers
2Boosting revenue by upselling to existing customers
3Combating subscriber turnover These elements are all related because each depends on exploiting both the infrastructure and content portfolio more effectively . This in turn requires accurate information about subscribers ’ experience and behaviour at different levels , which relies on getting that sensitive data covered by compliance regulations and which requires customers ’ confidence .
Such analytics require skills that are uniquely provided by specialists , and for this reason , Verimatrix has been working hard to establish collaborations with partners across the key categories such as churn reduction , recommendation and video QoS .
Furthermore , Verimatrix has customers of different sizes and categories in all the principle Asia- Pacific countries . We have detailed knowledge of the different regulatory regimes and keep track of changes , so we can ensure that our customers simultaneously comply with all regulations .
We are in effect expanding our footprint beyond traditional revenue security to include compliance and data analytics , which we believe will enable pay-TV operators in Asia- Pacific and elsewhere to thrive in the increasingly competitive markets for video consumption across multiple screens .
Visit www . verimatrix . com / verspective to learn more .