Intelligence-first anti-piracy model from Synamedia
September 3, 2020
By Colin Mann
Video software provider Synamedia has launched a new intelligence-first security model suggesting it is “laser-focused” on eradicating streaming pirates’ businesses and protecting legitimate providers’ revenues. Suggesting it is an industry first, this data-led model also makes it possible to measure the efficacy and ROI of anti-piracy initiatives.
The new approach combines digital and human intelligence to zero in on the increasingly sophisticated streaming piracy underworld that is threatening the media industry. It provides what Synamedia says is “unparalleled” forensic insights into the minds, motivations and behaviors of pirates, and their infrastructure and business models, for a more powerful, targeted anti-piracy response.
The model is already fuelling technology innovations across Synamedia’s security portfolio, helping customers protect revenues, negotiate fair content licence terms such as sports rights, and ensure compliance.
Several new product enhancements that are already benefiting from this methodology are:
- A redesigned counter-piracy operations centre – Synamedia EverGuard – the beating heart of Synamedia’s intelligence and analysis platform and Streaming Piracy Disruption (SPD) managed service. Incorporating big data analytics, Synamedia EverGuard creates a list of recommended actions against a set of devices, user accounts and pirate streaming sites. It supports multiple ways of disrupting services and analyses the effectiveness of each disruption mechanism for better future outcomes. The choice of action and time of enforcement is designed to cause maximum impact to pirates and nudge viewers back to legitimate services.
- A rich new UI for the SPD service, allowing operational security personnel to fine-tune the counter-piracy operations centre recommendations if required to meet specific business needs.
- A new generation of intelligence agents including new client- and/or headend-based watermarking agents that are resistant to pirates’ evasion techniques, and a new analytics agent.
- A new raft of disruption agents for a broader choice of responses, including new quarantining agents in the CDN and the control plane, as well as device revocation agents for turning off and de-registering devices proven to have been used by pirates.
- CSFEye, a credentials sharing and fraud solution that is an extension to the Credentials Sharing Insight service. CSFEye specifically targets fraudsters engaged in stealing or abusing accounts for commercial purposes, who compromise the privacy and identity of legitimate subscribers and pose a legal and commercial risk to service providers. CSFEye now includes the ability to identify all shadow users (both sharers and fraudsters), recommend and execute a range of actions in order to mitigate the risk, and convert them into paying customers.
“Video piracy is becoming an existential threat to the media industry because the barrier to entry is low and the return on investment very high,” notes Yael Fainaro, Senior Vice President, Security at Synamedia. “Eradicating these businesses is made more difficult by the fact that they have sophisticated operations, are well organised, and make extensive use of the latest technologies.”
“With a blend of human and digital intelligence we can build a detailed picture of the pirate ecosystem, crack the criminal mind-set and – working closely with law enforcement agencies – ultimately shut down pirates’ businesses,” she advises. “This hard data is an industry gamechanger, making it possible to move away from a best-effort cost model to one that proves the efficacy and ROI of any anti-piracy spend.”
Separately, Synamedia has launched Synamedia VN Cloud, a managed service for its entire video network portfolio. VN Cloud brings together broadcast quality of service with the latest cloud technologies to provide the flexibility and scale broadcasters and video service providers expect today.
According to Synamedia, VN Cloud is the industry’s first solution to offer end-to-end video network functionality on any public, private or hybrid cloud, and breaks new ground by delivering the high availability customers demand on a single platform for both broadcast and OTT.
“Our managed service proposition allows service providers, content owners and broadcasters to reinvent themselves by delivering broadcast quality services with the cost control and flexibility of the cloud,” explains Julien Signès, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Video Network at Synamedia. “As we designed VN Cloud, we focused on providing total control of complex, hybrid workflows from scene to screen while managing costs and with the insurance policy of cloud-based disaster recovery.”