2025 Security Outlook: Secure Your Media File Transfers
Is your company confident with its technology to safeguard your most valuable assets?
As the media and entertainment supply chain becomes increasingly interconnected and interdependent through IP workflows, exposure to cyberthreats continues to increase. According to one media vendor interviewed by the DPP for The State of Media Technology Security 2024 report, “Nobody ever caught a virus over SDI.”
Security is a never-ending, ongoing, constantly attacked effort with financial, brand, and business ramifications. According to Statista Technology Market Insights, the financial cost of cyberattacks will rise to over 15 trillion dollars by 2029.
Even though there is a widespread understanding of the importance of security, the DPP report also showed that media companies often lack full confidence in their staff’s cybersecurity knowledge and vigilance. Relying on technology partners who have been vetted by third parties can help bridge this gap.
Security Can Never Rest
In the last few years, headline-grabbing breaches have continued as hackers and cyberterrorists disrupted operations, took businesses hostage or leaked valuable information to the public. Here are just a few notable incidents:
Netflix, August 2024
- An online leak of new Netflix titles was linked back to a localization supplier. Many other big-named media companies were affected by the hack as numerous unreleased shows were pirated for streaming consumption.
Disney, July 2024
- Hacktivists targeted Disney, leaking over one terabyte of sensitive data from internal Slack channels. This included financial records, source code, and unreleased project details — spanning over 44 million messages.
Roku, April 2024
- Roku faced a cyberattack compromising 576,000 user accounts, just a month after revealing that 15,000 users had their credentials stolen via a third-party breach.
MOVEit, June 2023
- A vulnerability in IBM MOVEit’s managed transfer software led to one of the largest cyberattacks of the year. The software, used by financial services companies, government agencies, pension funds, and more, exposed over 62 million individuals and over 2,000 organizations to the breach.
“Because Signiant has been vetted by all the studios, a mission-critical stamp of approval, Mango/NewEdit doesn’t have to worry about content security when working with large studios. “
Stan Cassio, President, Mango/NewEdit
Strengthening Supply Chain Security with the Signiant Platform
In the media and entertainment industry, Signiant is an integral part of the global media supply chain, responsible for moving content that is worth billions, in some cases. Safeguarding these valuable media assets and ensuring uninterrupted business operations is fundamental to the success of the industry.
To combat ongoing cybersecurity threats, Signiant employs robust security measures to safeguard assets in transit:
- Secure Design Principles: Signiant prioritizes media asset protection through third-party assessments like the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) and complying with SOC 2 Type 2. Routine audits by top security firms help ensure thousands of companies trust Signiant to move sensitive data safely.
- Authentication: Signiant’s granular access controls ensure users only access the files they need, enhancing security while streamlining workflow with tailored permissions.
- Control & Visibility: The Signiant Platform combines transport acceleration with centralized management, offering scalable control and visibility. Media companies can easily oversee and report on transfers across endpoints, partners, and users.
- Storage Independence: Signiant ensures customers retain full control of their assets, facilitating direct transfers to and from their on-prem or cloud storage without intermediaries.
- External Partners: Signiant’s cloud-handshake enables secure, automated file transfers by verifying identities and permissions, simplifying inter-company exchanges without sharing passwords or network details.
“We trust Signiant as a security portal because it allows us to have content moving out of our buildings very confidently. Sometimes [Signiant] is aware of something happening before we know about it.“
Andrew Marescotto, Director of IT and Program Management, Blue Ant Media
Looking to the New Year
With a new year on the horizon, it’s a great time for media companies to look at the threat landscape and assess their content security plan. As files move throughout the media supply chain, multiple businesses and an increasing number of people access them, often from locations outside of their control. With more IP workflows and the ever-increasing sophistication of hackers and internet threats, companies need to ensure valuable assets are under strict lock-and-key.
When dealing with large valuable assets, media companies must have confidence in the technologies woven into their systems. The interconnected nature of the global media supply chain makes security not just a ‘nice to have’ but a necessity. Without understanding how vendors ensure your assets stay safe, media companies risk numerous threats, including ransomware, cyberattacks, phishing, and more.
“We knew how bad FTP was regarding security and we wanted to get away from that. That was the main driver, security.“
Jóhannes Reykdal, MCR Playout and Media Services Group, RÚV Iceland
Take the Next Step
Find out why tools like FTP, hard drives, and non-media-specific solutions like WeTransfer are no longer a viable option when moving large media with security in mind.
