Secured Trends: The Duality of Security Risks in Media & Entertainment
The media and entertainment industry operates in a unique ecosystem where creativity, technology and commerce converge. From blockbuster films to global streaming services, digital innovation drives the sector forward. But what does this mean for risk and cybersecurity across the industry?
It’s a complex and high-stakes environment with untold values of intellectual property and a large volume of consumer data to protect, making it a prime target for cyber threats.
This landscape demands a security approach that goes beyond traditional IT defenses. To understand the nuanced challenges, EPAM’s Chief Information Security Officer, Sam Rehman interviewed Dave Liu, EPAM’s Head of Media and Entertainment Consulting. During the in-depth discussion, they shed light on the critical trends, unique vulnerabilities and forward-thinking strategies required to protect the industry’s most valuable assets.
Two Sides of Risk Across the Industry
The media and entertainment sector is not a monolith, and its security should reflect that complexity. Dave Liu describes the industry as a "unique butterfly," where security is split between two distinct yet interconnected domains: traditional cybersecurity and content security.
- Enterprise Cybersecurity involves protecting internal corporate systems, financial data and consumers’ personally identifiable information (PII) collected by streaming platforms, applications and other services.
- Content Security focuses on safeguarding the intellectual property (IP) and artistic works themselves — the movies, shows, scripts, songs, titles and all the corresponding creative assets — from piracy and pre-release leaks.
Both domains present critical risk for security leaders across the industry. "If it’s leaking IP, you’ve just lost millions of dollars by releasing materials earlier," explains Liu. "People aren’t going into theaters to watch your movie. That’s a huge impact." A leak can derail a multi-million-dollar marketing campaign and undermine box office revenue. Similarly, a breach of PII can lead to significant lawsuits, regulatory fines and lasting brand damage, while downtime for a major streaming platform can result in millions of lost advertising dollars and subscription revenue. Digital piracy alone costs the global media and entertainment industry over $75 billion annually, with projections reaching $125 billion by 2028.
Key Trends Shaping Industry Security
As technology evolves, so do the methods for both creating and protecting content. Several key trends are defining the current state of cybersecurity in media and entertainment.
Advanced Content Protection
The battle against piracy has become highly sophisticated. Studios and distributors now employ advanced technologies to protect their assets. These include forensic watermarking and digital fingerprinting, which embed invisible markers into content to trace the source of a leak. Specialized anti-piracy teams actively monitor dark websites and torrent streams to issue takedown notices. Despite the use of innovative technology for asset protection, teams still struggle to keep up with the pace and source of leaks.
Platform & Supply Chain Complexity
The media supply chain is a sprawling network of creators, production houses, special effects vendors and distributors. Content changes hands numerous times, creating multiple points of potential vulnerability. "Lots of different hands, lots of integration points," notes Sam Rehman. "From a hacker perspective, there’s a lot of room for error. Every step of the way, there’s a transfer of hands.”
The Rise of AI & Automation
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being integrated into back-end processes to optimize everything from sales and support to media supply chain logistics. However, its adoption is not without risks. "There’s a lot of shadow AI usage going on, which may not be known to leadership," warns Liu. "It poses a risk if people put information into these models that they shouldn’t or rely too much on the output without human validation."
While studios remain hesitant to use generative AI for creating final content due to legal and contractual issues, its use in supporting roles is growing. This requires a robust governance framework to manage risks while still enabling innovation.
Lessons from Landmark Breaches
Past security failures have served as powerful catalysts for change within the industry. The Sony Pictures hack was a major wake-up call. It wasn't a single event but a series of coordinated attacks. "The third one was the shutdown moment — it was ground-stopping for their entire enterprise," Rehman recalls. The breach forced the company to shut down its systems and rebuild from the ground up, leading to a formalized Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role and a renewed focus on enterprise-wide security hygiene.
Long before that, the Napster era provided another crucial lesson. A simple security failure led to a massive shift. "The loss of one single root key instantly made all their assets out there completely irrelevant," says Rehman. This forced the music industry to innovate, offering higher-quality, variable-bandwidth audio to convince consumers to buy instead of pirate. It underscored a fundamental principle: when your most valuable asset is digital, its protection is paramount. As Rehman puts it, "If you understand what your sacred cow is, you better pay that level of focus around it."
Actionable Advice for Media & Entertainment CISOs
For security leaders navigating this complex environment, success depends on a multifaceted approach. Dave Liu offers three key pieces of advice for CISOs in this space:
- Acknowledge the Dual Focus: You must balance the needs of traditional corporate security with the unique demands of content protection. "To be successful, you need to have an awareness of both," says Liu. "Just having one and not the other will make it difficult for business users to interact with you."
- Prepare for Rapid Change: The industry is marked by divestitures, mergers and swift technological shifts. Security leaders must be agile and ready to adapt their strategies quickly to support business transformation — without compromising security.
- Establish AI Governance: Proactively address the risks of shadow AI. "You need to wrangle shadow AI usage and eliminate risks while still enabling flexibility for the business to innovate and get cost efficiencies," Liu advises. A formal governance policy is essential for harnessing the benefits of AI safely.
The Future of Cybersecurity in Media
Looking ahead, the industry faces both new and persistent challenges. Consumer behavior continues to shift toward on-demand, short-form content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. This disrupts traditional business models and forces media companies to find new ways to engage audiences securely. At the same time, rising subscription costs for streaming services could fuel a resurgence in piracy, making content protection more critical than ever. The constant evolution of threats requires a security posture that is proactive and deeply integrated into the business. As Sam Rehman concludes, "Security is never isolated from the context ... I really want to learn more about the context so that we can talk more about the real security stuff, not bits and bytes."
Ultimately, protecting the spotlight requires a collaborative effort. By fostering strong partnerships between security experts, technology providers and creative leaders, the media and entertainment industry can continue to innovate and captivate audiences worldwide, confident the security of its creations
