“We are very proud to be recognized as one of the ‘World’s Most Secure Content Services’” said Greg Howard, CEO of MIS.  “Having MIS’s content security approaches benchmarked against the stringent standards established by the CDSA – and once again achieving the CDSA accreditation – demonstrates the ongoing commitment of MIS to content security in an insecure world.”

“MIS offers game publishers and developers unparalleled scalability for their XBox360, PS3 and PC server bases, together with experienced live support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” said Edgar Lutter COO of MIS. “The coupling of our industry leading scalability and service with industry leading content protection and security is an offering that no other managed game server company can rightfully claim.”

“Content holders are ‘asking for (a site’s) CDSA audit more and more these days because it serves as a recognized badge of content security.  CDSA accredited sites have successfully undergone an intensive digital and physical audit of their site’s security and copyright policies procedures, making companies like MIS one of the industry’s most elite supply chain partners,” says Peter Wallace, Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy, CDSA

MyInternetServices.com, LLC. is North America’s largest independent managed game server solutions provider. Together with its strategic partner, Netherlands based Interactive 3D; MIS can deploy thousands of servers worldwide to meet demand for even the largest gaming titles. All datacenters employ the best available local networks and pre-selected global transit providers for optimized connectivity, minimized latency and systemic redundancy.

MIS’s 24/7/365 Network Operations Center located in Southern California and its backup Network Operations Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands provide continuous monitoring of the entire infrastructure that supports the deployed server base.  MIS’s fault monitoring protocols constantly scan its devices and connections from individual game server instance to global network level interfaces.  Visibility into every point of contact controlled by MIS and real-time event notifications give MIS the ability to anticipate and avoid many types of problems before they occur, and if a fault develops to fix it as quickly as possible with a minimum of disruption to gameplay.Primary datacenter locations include: United States (California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Virginia), Canada (Toronto), United Kingdom (London), the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam), France (Paris), Germany (Frankfurt), Russia (Moscow), Brazil (São Paulo), Japan (Tokyo), Australia (Sydney), China (Hong Kong), Singapore, and South Africa (Johannesburg). Onsite security, closed circuit televisions and pass card protections control facilities access.  Diesel-powered generators and uninterruptible power systems provide redundant power should a critical incident occur on the power grid. These combined protections allow MIS to offer its game publisher clients industry leading 99.999% uptime guarantees covering hardware, power, and network devices (including firewalls, load balancers, routers, and switches).For more information about MIS, a CDSA and SSAE 16 (Type II) certified company, visit www.GlobalGameServers.com ; or for executive interviews, please contact Edmar Mendizabal, Director of Business Development, emendizabal@globalgameservers.com, USA(626) 802-5900, Skype: MISEMendizabal, or visit: www.globalgameservers.com.

Long-time entertainment security expert Peter Wallace has been named Worldwide Director of Anti-Piracy for the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA)’s security auditing programs. Wallace, who has built the program to over 70 participating sites in Europe, will turn his focus to expanding the participation of entertainment supply chain partners in the U.S. and Asia as part of his expanded association role.

“Peter was the chief architect of the association’s Content Protection Standard (CPS) and he has been hugely successful in gaining the trust and support of key entertainment supply chain executives throughout the EMEA region,” says CDSA Executive Director Martin Porter. “Under his leadership we will now begin to align our program worldwide as well as with other leading security standards.”

Wallace replaces Linda Dyson who has retired after serving the industry for over 15 years as a lead copyright and licensing auditor and respected industry spokesperson and association representative.

In his 25-year career as an entertainment security expert, Wallace has served as Senior Vice-President for Security & Compliance with Deluxe Global Media and Disctronics, where he held worldwide responsibility for security and anti-piracy compliance. It was during this time that he started his long association with CDSA (then IRMA) and became well known for his expertise in the anti-piracy field.

“Content holders are ‘asking for (a site’s) CDSA audit ‘ more and more,” Wallace relates, “and CDSA accredited sites have undergone, and paid for, an intensive digital and physical audit of their site’s security and copyright policies procedures, making them one of the industry’s most elite supply chain partners. We encourage content holders to ask for a CDSA audit statement when selecting a vendor to handle their company’s most precious asset – their content.” Wallace adds, “With my appointment I will assure that CDSA’s own standard will keep pace with the rapid changes in our industry and its technology processes together with a worldwide consistency in approach. We will also begin expanding our offerings to include integration of CDSA’s new, cloud-based security management tool.”

Wallace has a law enforcement background and served as Western European Anti-Piracy Coordinator for IFPI (International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry) where he managed international piracy investigations; prior to that he served as a consultant to major record labels where he advised on security around the world and provided expertise in the protection of content throughout the supply chain.

To contact Peter Wallace email: pwallace@CDSAonline.org
Or call him at (U.K.) +44 (0) 7850 331033 or at (USA) +1 323 804 6386

In the first of a series of webinars on content protection, security and cyber-threat, Steve Armstrong, a leading international digital forensics expert provided guidelines and procedures for what to do if your network is compromised and your content and client information is stolen. Based upon true case studies, examples were shown on how attackers break into weak and poorly managed networks; critically, it also examined how these same networks fail to gather sufficient evidence, making forensic and criminal investigations next to impossible.

Download the audio/video recording of this insightful presentation and stay tuned for the next installment of the CDSA Security Webinar Series.

In an interview with Digital2Disc, Chesney, who serves as Universal’s VP of International Operations, says that working with CDSA was a “no brainer” after the executive “looked at the international landscape” and “realized that there was no common standard of content protection across the entire supply chain.” The CDSA’s independent audit certification system, Chesney says, “appeared to offer the best possibility” of a uniform content protection approach for all vendors that handle the studio’s pre-release assets.

Full story is available for download here.

LOS ANGELES — As part of its commitment to expanding its role as the International Content Protection Association, CDSA has announced new senior-level appointments to its Board of Directors. Joel Bigley, Senior Vice President Worldwide Operations and Business Execution, Deluxe Digital Studios; and James Dunkelberger, General Manager Worldwide Product Release and Security Services, Microsoft have been named to the CDSA Board. Richard Atkinson, Chief Piracy Specialist & Consultant, Anti-Piracy Worldwide, has been named as a strategic advisor.

“The expansion of our worldwide content protection programs as well as the successful rollout of a new, industry-wide risk management software solution is at the forefront of CDSA’s new suite of anti-piracy and content protection initiatives. With the addition to our Board of Joel Bigley, James Dunkelberger and with the ongoing strategic advice of Richard Atkinson, our industry association is in an even greater position to develop the most relevant, new advancements in collaborative activities for the protection of our industry’s most vital assets,” says CDSA Chairman Spencer Mott, CISO of Electronic Arts.

Joel Bigley, apart from his operational responsibilities, provides leadership for quality, performance, and security for all Deluxe Digital Studios (DDS) business entities worldwide. Bigley built the Quality Management System (QMS) and the Security Management System (SMS) at Deluxe Digital Studios, both industry leading programs that have led to worldwide CDSA certifications, industry leading scores on MPAA audits, and success on various other audits by studios and industry organizations.

James Dunkelberger is the General Manager of Microsoft’s worldwide Product Release and Security Services team, which is responsible for many aspects Microsoft’s IP protection strategy. He has worked at Microsoft for the last 15 years and over the last seven years has worked in product security, including physical protection of IP both internal to the company and in the supply chain, anti-counterfeiting technologies and strategies, product quality controls, and product activation investigations.

Richard Atkinson created and ran Disney’s Anti-Piracy Operations team for six years, and was also a technology innovator for famed Walt Disney Imagineering. Prior to Disney, he was Chief Communications Technologist for Northrop Grumman. As a strategic advisor to the board of CDSA, Atkinson plays a lead role in its new Content Protection Work Group Program and serves as Co-Chair of CDSA’s annual Entertainment Content Protection Summit, which is co-produced with Variety.

Among its current content protection initiatives, CDSA is advancing these vital industry services:

Content Protection Security Accreditation: The only worldwide content protection and security accreditation program, CDSA auditors have CPS certified nearly 40 sites since the program was launched at the beginning of 2010, with an additional 15 having applied for accreditation.

Enterprise Risk Management Tool (ERMT): In full-time use at Electronic Arts and now in the final stages of Beta test at three major Hollywood studios, this powerful risk assessment, vendor management software program has been migrated to the cloud to enable greater industry collaboration and the future establishment of an M&E Security Social Network.

Content Security Risk Assessment: The newest addition to the CDSA auditing portfolio, CSRA now enables content holders to activate a rapid-response, one-time risk assessment of a site or production partner, without requiring a full year-long accreditation process.

Content Protection Workgroups: Three ongoing member-based workgroups in the areas of Supply Chain, Risk Management and Market Intelligence meet monthly under Richard Atkinson’s direction to identify and activate potential, new areas for content protection and anti-piracy development and collaboration.

Content Protection Summit Europe: Expanding on the successful Entertainment Content Protection Summit held in December 2010 in Los Angeles, this year’s program will go global with a second event scheduled for September in London.

Content Protection Summit US: The second annual Entertainment Content Protection Summit is scheduled for December 8, 2011 in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES — CDSA, the International Content Protection Association, has announced a new industry service that will provide content holders with a rapid response assessment of security procedures in effect at new service providers and production partners. The new Content Security Risk Assessment (CSRA) program will produce in less than two week’s time a report of a site’s preparedness to protect the intellectual property of a studio, game company or music label. Using a newly developed scorecard based on CDSA’s internationally acclaimed Content Protection Security standard (CPS), the new CSRA program is being offered in response to a growing market demand for quick and short-term assessments and is based on work already being performed by CDSA’s auditors on a contract basis for leading companies like Electronic Arts.

“In order to properly assure the ongoing security compliance of a site it is essential that CDSA conduct a thorough series of audits over a period of a 18 months; the CPS standard is built on this premise,” explains CDSA Worldwide Director Linda Dyson, “However, in today’s dynamic marketplace content holders do not always have the time to wait and production and supply chain pressures often require a quick spot check of a site’s preparedness. The CSRA program is being launched in response to this demand and, it is hoped, will lead to many more sites undergoing the full process of CDSA CPS accreditation.” CDSA will not grade a site’s overall compliance based on the CSRA but will simply submit final scorecard rating data for customer evaluation. CSRA sites will not receive CDSA accreditation, will not to eligible to use any CDSA or CPS branding or logos, and the results of these site visits will remain confidential between the association, the site and the contracting organization. CSRA is the newest in CDSA’s expanding series of Anti-Piracy and Compliance programs that began over ten years ago with the launch of the Copyright and Licensing Verification Program (CLV) and was advanced more recently with the widely adopted Content Protection Security standard (CPS). For more information about CSRA and its application to your business contact Linda Dyson via email at ldyson@CDSAonline.org, or by calling: +1-404-349-9600

About CDSA’s Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs For over a decade, CDSA has been recognized as the worldwide leader of Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs. Most recently, the Content Protection and Security standards (CPS) were first written in 2008 by an international team of intellectual property, anti-piracy and security experts from both the physical and digital security arenas, thus giving coverage to the whole supply chain. By implementing these Standards, organizations effectively demonstrate effective process approaches for the handling, manufacturing, storage and delivery of valuable entertainment, software and information and assets in the home entertainment, video game and music recording industries.

About CDSA
CDSA, the Content Delivery & Storage Association (formerly IRMA, the International Recording Media Association), is the worldwide forum advocating the innovative and responsible delivery and storage of entertainment, software and information content. Founded in 1970, this global trade association’s membership includes companies involved in every facet along the digital and physical media supply chain. Beginning with the audiocassette, through the home video revolution, and into today’s digital delivery era, CDSA has always been the organization that companies turn to to address the most important industry-wide issues of their time. More information is available online at: www.contentdeliveryandstorage.org

“Customers in the gaming and entertainment industry can rely on us to host their content under stringent guidelines and have a higher level of comfort that we are safeguarding their assets and data,” explains Fabio Banducci, President and CEO, PEER 1 Hosting. “This certification further validates Peer 1 Hosting’s dedication towards proactive and continuous improvement of our internal controls.”

PEER 1 Hosting is one of the world’s leading IT hosting providers. The company’s best-in-breed technology is founded on a high performance 10Gb SuperNetwork™ connected by 17 state-of-the-art data centers, 21 points-of-presence and 10 co-location facilities serving 10,000 customers throughout North America and Europe.
“Through its CPS accreditation, PEER 1 Hosting has effectively demonstrated its capability to effectively provide manage high-value assets for media and entertainment companies,” said Linda Dyson, worldwide director of CDSA’s Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs. “Security accreditation punctuates its commitment and leadership as a responsible provider of secure, managed hosting services dedicated to the protection of a wide range of intellectual property – from global game producers to major motion picture studios around the globe.”

About PEER 1 Hosting
PEER 1 Hosting is one of the world’s leading IT hosting providers. The company is built on two obsessions: Ping & People. Ping, represents its commitment to best-in-breed technology, founded on a high performance 10Gb SuperNetwork™ connected by 17 state-of-the-art data centres, 21 points-of-presence and 10 colocation facilities throughout North America and Europe. People, represents its commitment to delivering outstanding customer service to its more than 10,000 customers worldwide, backed by a 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support™. PEER 1 Hosting’s portfolio includes Managed Hosting, Dedicated Servers under the ServerBeach brand, Colocation and Cloud Services. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with European operations headquartered in Southampton, UK. PEER 1 Hosting shares are traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX. For more information visit: www.peer1.com or www.peer1hosting.co.uk .

About CDSA’s Content Protection and Security Program (CPS)

Through its ongoing research with renowned security practitioners, CDSA has pioneered the first internationally accepted Content Protection and Security Standards Program for the industry. This structured and practical accreditation process assists organizations to systematically manage and address its security and piracy risks. The risk-based content security management standard and ongoing accreditation audit program focus on the security management of content – in all of its forms – across the entire supply chain.
About CDSA – Content Delivery and Storage Association
CDSA (formerly IRMA) is the international content protection association, advocating the innovative and responsible delivery and storage of entertainment, software and information content. Founded in 1970 at the beginning of the audiocassette industry, the association has worked on behalf of its member companies through the home video revolution and into today’s digital delivery era. CDSA has assisted content holders and their supply chain partners to maintain the most responsible practices and policies for secure handling of intellectual property for home video, music, video games and business software. For more information visit: www.cdsaonline.org.

Richard Atkinson, Anti-Piracy Worldwide

Damien Slowey, The Walt Disney Company

Presenters:
Richard Atkinson, Chief Piracy Specialist, Anti-Piracy Worldwide;
Click here to download presentation | Click here to download audio
Damien Slowey, Anti-Piracy Manager, Disney EMEA;
Click here to download audio

With so much to lose doesn’t it make sense for the entertainment industry to agree on a single vendor security auditing standard?

Martin Porter, Executive Director

Something is broken in the content security world and nobody has figured out how to fix it.  Ask any post house, replicator in town — anyone who’s handling invaluable pre-release content on behalf of the studios, game companies or record labels.  They’ll tell you that they are being audited ad nauseum by studios, industry associations, consultantcies, etc.  One post house in town told me that it performed over 100 independent security audits last year alone, with serious cost in time, productivity, and auditing fees.  There’s CDSA (which I run), MPAA, Microsoft, ISO, plus studios that also conduct their own review of a vendor’s content security procedures.  A vendor will successfully gain accreditation or review by one body just to be called the next day for another audit by somebody else.

Don’t get me wrong — security audits are essential.  In fact, standards need to get tighter and everyone needs to huddle around best practices and proven solutions that plug the possibility of a costly security breach.

But redundancy simply doesn’t make sense.  It costs everyone money.  And when it comes to security there’s simply no money to waste — especially with the new front exploding in the world of online piracy that could sink the entire ship if we’re not careful and if we’re not spending our money wisely.  Paramount CTO Chris Carey’s presentation on the true cost of Internet piracy at ESCA EDGE last June was a wake-up call for the home entertainment industry.  It made it clear that a decade of trying to put disc pirates out of business and making sure that a colorist doesn’t walk out of the post house with your next blockbuster on a hard-drive in his pocket, needs to advance to the equally (and potentially more) pressing issue of pirate cyberlockers aided by search engines and government agencies who drain the value of our Intellectual Property.

Obama had to make a tough decision.  How did he hold onto Iraq while he moved resources to Afghanistan?  Our industry has to make a similar choice.  How do we secure the pre-release media front while we get our head around putting online pirates out of business?

But there’s more — more vendors than ever before to manage, audit and secure.  It used to be you only needed to audit your post houses and your replicators — large, well-managed international corporations that already had security systems and risk management policies in place.  But the connected world and new, desktop technology tools have led to a proliferation of vendors throughout the world.  Captioning is being done by a specialist in his Eastern European home, while music is being mixed in a basement studio in Brooklyn, and game code is being written in the backwoods of the Canadian rockies.  How do you audit these remote and often small corporate partners?  Electronic Arts CISO Spencer Mott has a solution he describes on page 26 of this Journal.

Consolidated security audits is one way to save. Let’s dump all the standards into a single database, analyze the gaps, delete the overlap and come out with a single checklist that everyone agrees to and that can be executed by a single auditing body that can do the job  best in the most cost–effective way.  And let’s find an acceptable way to share the findings within the parameters of the law.

Let’s finally clean up our act on this still-essential legacy battle so we can focus resources and energies on the troubles ahead.

MILAN, ITALY — In a move designed to secure the manufacturing and distribution of Blu-ray, DVD and CD products throughout the entire Italian entertainment supply chain, GD Packaging has become the first packaging company to gain CDSA Content Protection and Security (CPS) accreditation and has played a primary role in involving its production partners in the program.

In addition to GD Packaging, Easy Replica has gained CDSA CPS and Copyright and Licensing Verification (CLV) accreditation, while GDD Manufacturing and Starmaster are both working towards their CPS and CLV accreditation.
These recent announcements are part of a nationwide adoption of the CDSA content security and copyright protection standards. Also accredited in Italy are IMS and Decibel Trading Service (CLV) with IMS and Duplas Avelca both working towards CPS accreditation.

As GD Packaging General Manager Stefano Goy explains, “Improving security and anti-counterfeiting measures has always been a priority at our company. After completing an anti-intrusion set-up and implementing CCTV system and access control we achieved CDSA CPS accreditation as of January 2010. However, it was clear that we were only as secure as the weakest link in our supply chain. As a result we gathered together our partners, including replicators, printers and stampers, to encourage them to join as well. Being CDSA accredited assures our clients a single point of reference. Even though clients know a project will be handled by various companies, this program guarantees confidence in the accuracy and security of the final product from creation through distribution.”

Peter Wallace, Director, EMEA for CDSA adds, “The Italian market has taken a leadership role in the widespread adoption of our program with the understanding that much of the work in the optical disc marketplace requires the participation of multiple partners. The effort of GD Packaging to secure their entire entertainment supply chain is an initiative that resounds in other markets around Europe and the world.”

Based in Pioltello (east of Milan), GD PACKAGING is one of the largest external packagers all over Europe and located in a logistically strategic area for supplying the north and center of Italy.

About CDSA’s Content Protection and Security Standards
For over a decade, CDSA has been recognized as the worldwide leader of Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs. CDSA’s Content Protection and Security Standards were first written in 2007 by an international team of intellectual property, anti-piracy and security experts from both the physical and digital arenas, thus giving coverage to the entire media supply chain. By implementing these Standards, organizations effectively demonstrate process approaches for the handling, manufacturing, storage and delivery of valuable entertainment, software, information and assets in the home entertainment, video game and music industries.

About CDSA
CDSA, the Content Delivery & Security Association (formerly IRMA, the International Recording Media Association), is the international content protection association. For over 40 years, it has served as the worldwide forum advocating the innovative and responsible delivery and storage of entertainment, software and information content. Founded in 1970, this global trade association’s membership includes companies involved in every facet along the digital and physical media supply chain. Beginning with the audiocassette, through the home video revolution, and into today’s digital delivery era, CDSA has always been the organization companies have turned to for news, networking, market research, information services, and leadership.

More information is available online at: www.cdsaonline.org