In August, a version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was leaked online, which Sony tried fruitlessly to remove. MARVEL and all related character names: © & ™ 2021 MARVEL) ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (Photo courtesy Courtesy of Sony Pictures. Nevertheless, the attack made national and international news headlines and forced Nine to seek help from the Federal Government’s Australian Signals Directorate, which assists in overseeing the nation’s critical infrastructure. Nine were never able to identify the actual attackers. Nine eventually recovered their systems and did not pay the ransom.
The goal was to cause maximum damage and extract a ransom – a fee paid to the hackers to decrypt Nine’s files. Let’s be crystal clear: this was a targeted criminal attack designed intentionally to disrupt Nine’s newsgathering and newsmaking operations severely. How could this happen? The specifics have never been publicly disclosed, but it would appear that “state actors” infiltrated Nine’s networks, allowing the ransomware’s detonation on their production networks. Industry experts identified MedusaLocker Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) as the culprit. Employees were forced to work from home while the company mopped up. The attack brought down their entire live broadcast and corporate news production systems for over 24 hours. It was the most significant cyberattack on a media company in Australia’s history. In March 2021, the Nine Network suffered a cyber attack. Now, this might all sound dramatic and alarmist, but the risks are genuine. If you’re a facility owner or head of production, you need to ask yourself questions such as: Does my business, facility, or production, fully understand the technology in use, the risks involved, and the consequences of the misuse or abuse of those systems? Can I afford the loss of confidential information or content? Can my business afford to pay a ransom? Can my business afford to have its reputation tarnished for not taking cybersecurity seriously? What would my clients think? Would they ever want to work with my facility again if it was compromised? Therefore, every organisation needs to understand the risks involved in operating and using technology. It’s the art of maintaining information confidentiality, integrity and availability.”Įvery organisation involved in M&E is dependent on technology, irrespective of whether it’s a small VFX facility or a large studio. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines cybersecurity in its simplest form as art (high art even!): “Cybersecurity is the art of protecting networks, devices and data from unauthorised access or criminal use.
#TECH N9NE THE STORM HAS IT LEAKED HOW TO#
Hopefully this article will answer those questions and give you a few pointers on how to go about implementing cybersecurity in your organisation. So how does cybersecurity apply to you, your projects or your crew? How is it going to affect your production or facility? Will you go broke implementing cybersecurity protections? What does being “hacked” really mean? However, media and entertainment (M&E) companies are particularly susceptible for various reasons, including short production timelines, generally relaxed security, large production budgets, and high-value content. No business is immune from cyber attacks or breaches. Another business or organisation has been hacked, and their confidential information, client and employee data has been leaked. You have all heard about cybersecurity, right? It pops up in the news or on social media regularly. Groundwire Security founder, owner and CEO James Bourne outlines steps you can take to protect your business. Media and entertainment organisations are particularly susceptible to cyber attacks and data breaches.