Cyberthreat growth causes chaos for tech buyers
Michael Keithley has spent over two decades running IT and security for CAA, the Hollywood talent agency whose clients include Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Scarlett Johansson.
Of late, his job has been particularly intense. The change dates back to November 2014, when a massive hack at Sony Pictures shut down the studio’s computer system and exposed highly confidential and embarrassing employee and celebrity information.
“We were Ground Zero for obvious reasons,” said Keithley, who joined the agency in 1991, before many companies were even connected to the Internet.
CAA’s board took up the issue, increasing the firm’s cybersecurity budget. Keithley doubled the number of security vendors he uses from 15 to 30, hired more industry experts and developed tools to address today’s advanced and persistent threats.
It’s a story that’s playing out across every corporation, nonprofit and government agency, big or small, domestic or foreign. The software and systems built to protect computers and servers over the past few decades simply don’t work in a world where every device is networked and exabytes (billions of gigabytes) of data are stashed in the cloud.
