Hackers: Analysis of Attack Anatomies

Abstract

Whether to obtain pre-theatrical content assets from US studios or circumvent distribution rights of European broadcasters, hackers are highly motivated to attack the global media and entertainment industry. These attacks are facilitated by the current rapid adoption of embedded systems, cloud solutions, and web based platforms. These attacks often undermine the very collaboration, cost-efficiency, monetization, scalability and user experience goals for which these systems were designed and deployed. As malicious hackers advance their techniques at a staggering pace, often rendering current defense tactics obsolete, so too must security practitioners obsess over deploying progressive techniques. Presented by the elite American organization of white hat hackers most widely known for being first to break the iPhone and the only security consulting firm engaged in the security team of USC's Project Cloud initiative, this paper analyzes the anatomies of real world attacks against high profile systems. It will extract lessons from these attack anatomies to provide a framework to account for these modern attackers, articulate context to the global media and entertainment industry, and supply readers with key takeaways, including immediately actionable guidance.