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Sony Pictures Entertainment Tightening Internet Security
Gerilyn Yoder
BIS/221
July 27, 2015
John Zupan

Sony Pictures Entertainment Tightening Internet Security Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is not a stranger to internet security issues. From an attack by hackers in 2002, to an attack in 2011 that affected the Sony Playstation gaming system, resulting in the release of client personal information, to the most recent and most severe attack in December 2014 where personal information was leaked about staff, clients, and upcoming projects. Though repairs to the Sony cooperation from the December 2014 attack are still in the works, my designated teammates and I decided to focus on the attack Sony experienced in 2002 due to an article that was discovered focusing on Jeff Uslan and his new “Man Hunt” software. Jeff Uslan is the director of information protection and security for SPE and in 2002 he incorporated a Network Intrusion Detection System (IDS) from Recourse Technologies titled “Man Hunt”. This software will help (Conry-Murray, 2002) “prevent loss of intellectual property, a possible public humiliating web site defacement, and network downtime that would affect film production, television shows, and video game production.” “Man Hunt” acts as a (Conry-Murray, 2002) “highly effective crystal ball that helps Uslan monitors a global network for intrusion attempts and internal misuse.” Sony Picture Entertainment security revolves around firewalls, anti-virus software, and intrusion detection. The “Man Hunt” software monitors for network misuse and traffic anomalies, and allows administrators to add custom signatures using (Conry-Murray, 20021) “open-source formatting to thwart fragmented-packet attacks.”

According to a fellow team mate, this particular IDS has an (2015, Begum) “engine that performs two functions: sensing and correlating analysis. The engine is then loaded onto a dedicated server, called a sensor, and monitors traffic passing through. As the sensor watches traffic, any network deemed suspicious are passed onto the analysis framework which communicates with other “Man Hunt” sensors to see if they are reporting similar events. The framework assumes a relationship if these events have similar characteristics such as IP address, destination IP address, and the time of the event. All related events are then grouped into a single incident which is then forwarded to management. Correlating the events reduces the number of alerts in the IDS system allowing the framework to determine a severity profile for each incident.”

“Intellectual property is SPE’s bread and butter”, says Uslan. “Losing intellectual property means losing revenue or SPE’s competitive advantage.” Being prepared and protecting your information is important and should be taken seriously!

Resources

Conrad-Murray, A. (2002, July). “Sony Pictures Casts Intrusion Detection in Starring Role for Network Security”. Network Magazine, 17.7, 58-63.

Begum, H. (2015, July). “Week Two Learning Team Collaborative Discussion”. Introduction to Computer Applications Class, University of Phoenix.

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