Data Protection

It’s now been two months after a very rewarding NAB conference, and as the relentless pace of digital transformation in the M&E industry continues to accelerate, Quantum in parallel also hasn’t let our proverbial foot off the gas.

At Quantum, we have been delivering both approaches for decades with our scale-out products, engineered for large and data-intensive workloads, and our scale-up approach for data protection. Why both? Because Data Protection and Production functions have different requirements.

Industry leaders love to talk to other industry leaders when it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but they should talk to their local authority instead.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new privacy regulation across the European Union (EU) that will take effect on May 25, 2018. It provides EU individuals (aka “data subjects”) with more control over their personal data, ensures transparency about the use of data, and requires security and controls to protect data. If your company offers goods or services (even for free) to EU residents, monitors EU residents’ behaviors (including via cookies), or has any type of physical presence in the EU, then your organization is probably subject to GDPR compliance.

Demand for compelling video content is on the rise—and that’s probably great news for your production or post-production studio. But rapidly rising demand can present some storage challenges you’ve never faced before. As you work on more and more projects, your production files and video assets can consume a lot of capacity in your primary storage environment. Your used capacity will only increase as you move into higher-resolution formats that generate larger files.

Encryption is a great way to keep data secure, but sometimes it can be used against us. Yes, we’re talking about ransomware. According to Statista, “preventing malware, including ransomware” is ranked as the second most pressing cyber security issue in 2017, according to IT security professionals worldwide, just after “identifying vulnerabilities.”

It’s a casual weekday at work and, armed with a steaming cup of coffee, you tuck, dip, and juke your way past coworkers to avoid spilling the contents of that 12 oz. mug. As you make your way back to your desk, a quick glance at your inbox reveals emails from a slightly familiar sounding domain. At this critical moment, you let down your guard and click on its simplistic message, giving hackers access to your system. An eruption of swearwords follows as you realize what has happened and accidentally knock over that coffee.

Recently, I climbed on stage to moderate a panel discussion on “infrastructure vs. cloud” at the Technology in Government conference in Canberra, Australia. My panelists ranged from first-line government IT managers to heavy hitters like Barbara Cohn, the first chief data officer of New York state.

Have you seen the t-shirts? If you live in Seattle, they can be spotted in popular happy hour spots worn proudly by the millennials of tech.

The Galactic Empire needed a way to squash the rebellion manifesting across its galaxies. It decided to design the Death Star, which conveniently wipes out planets one at a time, striking terror into the hearts of those thinking of raising their hands with the Rebel Alliance against the Empire. When the Galactic Empire needed a secure way to store the schematics for the Death Star, it turned to a technology that transcends both time and space—the tape drive. Tape offers the Empire an offline backup copy for protection against both ransomware and rebels with the added ability to physically store it at a data center on an offsite planet. Unfortunately for the Empire, too much faith in the dark side and too little faith in IT security resulted in the tape being stolen and the Death Star being exploited for its minor design flaw.

This Tuesday marked the third Amazon Prime Day, a self-proclaimed holiday which analysts estimated would equate to $1 billion in sales for Amazon in online retail. Analysts predicted a 55% increase over 2016 results. Amazon outperformed with a 60% increase in sales—the largest shopping day in its history. I’ll admit I participated with the purchase of a new blender, and I can’t wait for it to arrive in Amazon’s promised three-day delivery window.

The latest international cyberattack struck overnight affecting large European companies, such as Russian oil conglomerate Rosneft, pharmaceutical company Merck, and Danish shipping company Maersk. This latest version of ransomware is similar to the WannaCry attacks which occurred just last month and affected tens of thousands of machines.