business today security in ‘the cloud’
Well if it happened to the CIA, FBI, national newspapers, banks and other financial institutions, major retailers, manufacturers and (scarily) the Iranian nuclear energy programme, it was bound to happen in the world of entertainment, wasn’t it? However, how many people suspected that the first major successful network attack - NB not piracy of smart cards as that is altogether another story - would happen to Sony of all people? Joe O’Halloran asks what lessons can we learn from the failure?
No, it’s potentially a lot more important than that. It’s about potentially losing confidence in a business model - a business model which has given service providers and operators great business advantages by potentially cutting huge swathes into distribution costs and becoming more agile organisations by a transition from capex-based activities to opex-led operations. Yet without trust in the cloud at consumer level, the model fails. The way people consume media is
Cloud busting video content I
s it just a harsh new reality of network or cloud-based entertainment services that the odd event will always happen, just like kids sneaking into the movie theatre by the back door?
If this can happen to Sony, who can’t it happen to? Just how well is the industry geared up to protect cloud-based services?
continually changing, in fact it is totally akin to the way we shop in general. These days we all want enhanced, personalised shopping experiences, wherever we may be. There’s a great business case to doing this: evidence suggests that multi-channel customers shop significantly more and also spend considerably more. It’s totally the same for entertainment services: give people more access to content and they will consume more. Just look at iPad users
given the opportunity to tune into connected TV services. Yet with this increasingly dazzling range of platforms that connect to more places over the cloud, there’s also a dazzling array of potential security risks. Let’s just examine what happened
with Sony in April this year when it discovered the successful attack that is thought to have seen more than 70 million users’ personal details compromised. That’s 10 million more people than the entire population of the UK. And it took from 20 April 2011, when Sony first closed down the compromised network and then embarked on the task of reassuring its users and the world that it had enhanced security across the network, until mid July 2011 to fully restore all PlayStation Network and Qriocity video on demand services. Just think of what that means from a
business perspective: nearly three months of zero revenues from the services, plus the cost of putting right the attacks with new security measures including automated software monitoring and configuration management to help defend against new attacks; enhanced levels of data protection and encryption and the
enhanced ability to detect software intrusions within the network; the cost of a new customer appreciation programme designed to thank customers for their ‘patience and loyalty’; inevitable pending legal costs; and the impact of the reputational damage done leading to existing customers leaving & future customers not signing up. A high price indeed. But if this can happen to Sony, who
can’t it happen to? Just how well is the industry geared up to protect cloud- based services? When it launched its N Cloud product, basically a home cloud solution, French connected home technologies supplier Netgem made very precise technological decisions as to the security capabilities that would be built in. Said CEO Christophe Aulnette: “We chose to use a hybrid system because we firmly believe that consumers will become more and more cautious about sharing their personal data and guaranteeing privacy is a value-added service that operators can sell in to their customers. Our solution means devices such as TV, tablets, and smartphones, do not need the Internet to access stored content, since this is kept within the home. Our architecture ensures the consumer can
6 l ibe l september/october 2011 l
www.ibeweb.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84