One of the subplots of IBC has been the increasing interest in cyber security and an initiative was discussed yesterday by the Association of International Broadcasters (AIB), with chief executive Simon Spanswick saying: “
Finance is probably six years ahead of the media industry in terms of its cyber security expertise.” The AIB has set up a working group to see where the attacks are coming from, to enable people to plan for all probabilities.
“You cannot stop attacks and they happen all the time. But there are more tools coming onto the market and this makes it important to share best practice,” said Spanswick.
“It is an exchange of information, not about telling people you must do this or that.”
The AIB will establish how to respond to attacks, how to make sure people have the systems in place to repel attacks, and the big ‘if’: “If attacked and something catastrophic happens, we must have the systems in place to continue on air,” said Spanswick.
“TV5Monde was pulled off the air in April and records were destroyed, operations ceased, and it was extraordinarily costly: €80-90 million to restore the station.
Broadcasters are receiving ransomware threats the whole time.”
