One of the reasons Apple succeeded with its iPod/iTunes franchise is that it finally provided a single solution to easily manage, share and listen to all your music, anywhere. No longer did you need to record an album to cassette for long car rides or for exercising with your Walkman. No longer did you have to keep up with piles of CDs or boxes of tapes.

In 2014, cloud computing finally became commonplace within Media & Entertainment technology, a much needed leap many experts say was held back by security concerns. And the broader cloud computing community is taking note. Last week, CloudWedge published a comprehensive article on the trend of cloud adoption in the media industry by Signiant CEO Margaret Craig called Cloud Adoption: A Media & Entertainment Perspective.

Within Media & Entertainment, those responsible for the technology future of their companies are facing a dilemma. Cloud solutions provide what might be the only answer to escalating data amounts within an increasingly agile industry. But security fears inhibit many from taking advantage of SaaS and other cloud technologies.

Last week, Signiant CTO Ian Hamilton joined a panel discussion at the 5th annual Content Protection Summit in Hollywood, looking at security practices for cloud solutions within the media industry.

Operational policies and procedures are key to the security of any SaaS offering. Signiant operational policies and procedures are established in accordance with industry standards for service organization controls. Connectivity between the production service environment and Signiant business operations is restricted in accordance with least privilege and defense-in-depth principals. Fully independent production and development Media Shuttle environments are also maintained. This blog highlights some of the operational controls in place for production elements of the cloud environment.

Media & Entertainment has been a pioneering industry in the practice of sending large files over the Internet. Early file transfer software like FTP solved part of the problem, but had many limitations. More efficient ftp alternatives like hybrid SaaS and cloud-based solutions are being adopted by media and other data-intensive industries for a better experience with large file transfer.

The far-reaching cyber-attack on Sony Pictures last week has put Hollywood studios on high alert as the company’s financial damage and emotional strain become apparent. Whether the attack was in retaliation for a film negatively portraying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or some other mal intent, Hollywood has suddenly entered an information security conversation we typically reserve for governments and banks.

In Part 1 of the Securing SaaS series, we offered a background of the hybrid SaaS Architecture that Media Shuttle relies on for safe, easy media transfer. Part 2 looked specifically at security related to customer provisioning, user rights, and transfer validation. Now, we can look at specific design principles including data storage, audit collection, and secure-by-default.

In Part 1, we discussed the hybrid SaaS architecture behind Media Shuttle including file storage, the cloud tier, TLS, and password policies. Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s turn to the security behind the customer journey—from setup with the help of Signiant Customer Care to authorized transfers.

When most of us think about television, what immediately comes to mind is the latest show we’re addicted to or perhaps how destructive too much of it can be on the developing brains of our youth. But TV has long played a role at the center of democratic, free speech and social movements across the globe, depending on the level of government control over the medium.