Leading Lights Finalists 2015: Most Innovative Security Strategy
Ericsson -- Service-Oriented Security Model
Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) is a strong player in both cable and IPTV, but it was its strength in multi-screen video security that won it a place on this shortlist. Ericsson's entitlements-driven service protection strategy is to protect and secure media content and that content's terms of service in any delivery mode -- live, time-shift, video-on demand, etc. -- and across any device.
This goes beyond traditional DRM systems by enabling the operator to build services that meet their business needs, meaning they can insert ads, use analytics, allow catch-up or re-start TV viewing and offer promotional bundles for limited plays on a per-user, device, location, time and content basis. This is especially important as pay TV providers work on multiscreen "TV everywhere" projects and navigate complex content relationships that may dictate what screen or what network that content can be played on.
To ensure all of this is done securely, Ericsson’s Service Oriented Security Model also provides end-to-end secure key management, encryption and enforcement of digital rights in both online and offline modes across all screens.
Microsemi
Microsemi Corp. is the only vendor taking a hardware-based approach to security in our shortlist. It is tackling security at the chip level with its system on a chip (SoC) field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that go in core routers, switches, small cells, remote radio heads and missile systems.
This is important because of new applications that require higher security than these devices have traditionally provided -- for example, for apps in the commercial, industrial, government and defense industries or for encrypted networking, secure data storage, machine-to-machine (M2M) authentication, missile, information assurance (IA) and anti-tamper (AT) applications.
The vendor claims to have created "a new category of flash-based SoC FPGAs that are inherently more secure than SRAM-based solutions because they store configuration information on-chip in non-volatile memory so that the bit stream is never exposed at startup." The chips also include key features that allow security to be layered as needed through the system to protect the supply chain, the hardware and data communications.
Nokia Networks
Recognizing that safe and reliable communications will be paramount to the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT), Nokia Networks has expanded its Mobile Guard to detect and prevent security attacks from IoT devices. You can appreciate how important this is when you consider that pacemakers, cars and home security systems are amongst the devices included in the IoT.
Mobile Guard analyzes network traffic patterns from telco services like mobile broadband, SMS and voice, so that it can detect malware early and then notify the user, block the affected services on the network and help subscribers clean their infected device.
Within the IoT, Nokia has teamed with F-Secure Corp. to correlate suspicious network traffic patterns to known threats in a self-learning process that will both detect and shut down malware on the spot. Nokia says this process is optimized for the IoT, which can include "new and extremely complex embedded apps," via device profiling. Mobile Guard presents a way for operators to reduce opex, maintain service quality and potentially bring in new revenue streams by providing this security to their enterprise and IoT customers.
Verimatrix -- Verspective Intelligence Center
Verimatrix Inc. has a long history of providing strong security for video services, but it is a new strategy that qualified it for the security shortlist. The vendor's Verspective Intelligence Center was developed as a response to pay TV providers transitions to IP-driven, software-centric technologies for video delivery. The Center is a cloud-based engine for system deployment, management, monitoring and analytics to identify potential threats across networks and screens.
It connects otherwise isolated video security instances and proactively addresses revenue threats like piracy. Verimatrix says it eliminates the shortcomings of legacy DRM or CA systems by interconnecting operator deployments to the cloud.
The Leading Lights 2015 winners and newest class of Hall of Fame inductees will be unveiled at the Leading Lights awards dinner, which will be held the evening of Monday, June 8, at Chicago's Field Museum. The star-studded soirée will follow a day of special workshops covering topics such as SDN, 5G and Carrier Ethernet for the Cloud that take place ahead of Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE), which this year is being held at the McCormick Place convention center on June 9 and 10. (Details and the agenda are on our show site, Big Telecom Event.)
— Sarah Thomas, 
, Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading
