With hackers targeting exclusive content and user data, it’s time to revisit your app security.
Streaming media has revolutionized the entertainment industry, giving consumers unparalleled choice and convenience. Major players like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, and Max dominate the subscription video on demand (SVoD) space, while music streaming giants like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Deezer attract millions of subscribers with their vast content libraries.
But this success has also made these over-the-top (OTT) platforms prime targets for cybercriminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities and steal valuable intellectual property. In this wild west of digital media, app shielding has emerged as a critical line of defense, protecting content, safeguarding user data, and ensuring the integrity of the streaming ecosystem.
The movies, shows, music, and other content housed within streaming apps are the core assets of your services. Protecting this intellectual property from theft and unauthorized distribution is essential to maintain competitive advantage, retain subscribers, and uphold licensing agreements with content creators.
Let's explore more critical aspects of streaming app security:
Beyond content, streaming apps handle a treasure trove of sensitive user information, including names, email addresses, viewing histories, and payment details. A data breach exposing this information could lead to reputational damage, subscriber churn, and hefty fines under data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
According to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach is $4.88 million. For a major streaming service with millions of subscribers, even a 1% churn rate following a data breach could lead to major financial losses. On top of that, the fines imposed by data protection regulations can be substantial. Under GDPR, companies can face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual revenue, whichever is higher.
For SVoD platforms, content piracy presents a persistent threat. Servers contain unreleased content, which if leaked, spreads to the black market before its official release and can have financial and reputational consequences.
Leading players invest in advanced content protection strategies to safeguard their exclusive releases. With each new title, these platforms employ stringent security to keep the content from leaking prematurely and spreading through unauthorized channels. This helps keep the content protected and maintain its value and ensure subscriber loyalty.
Even the giants still face challenges related to unauthorized access to user accounts. Password sharing and pirated login credentials dilute the value of the service and can strain infrastructure if left unchecked. It's critical to ensure users are who they say they are, reduce account sharing, prevent login credential reselling, and pay in full for your services.
Just a couple of years ago, Spotify reset passwords after a security vulnerability exposed users’ personal account information, including email addresses, usernames, passwords, gender, and dates of birth. While no unauthorized access was detected, the incident highlighted the importance of proactive security measures.
The complex architecture of OTT apps, spanning multiple devices and operating systems, provides a wide attack surface for cybercriminals. Every component—from the content delivery network to the client-side player—is a potential point of vulnerability.
Hackers are constantly probing for weaknesses, whether that's unsecured APIs, unpatched software vulnerabilities, or misconfigurations in cloud storage buckets. This makes comprehensive security crucial to maintain platform integrity and prevent data theft, content leakage, or system compromise.
The threat landscape for OTT apps is vast and constantly evolving. Let's take a closer look at some of the most common risks and vulnerabilities:
Insecure data storage, weak encryption, misconfigured databases, and vulnerabilities like SQL injection can all compromise sensitive user information. Phishing attacks and social engineering can also trick users into revealing their login credentials. Attackers may try to access and sell this data on the dark web or use it for identity theft and fraud.
For example, a phishing campaign targeting YouTube influencers hijacked several accounts in 2020. Beyond technical safeguards, educating users and deploying social engineering protection is essential.
DRM is the frontline defense against content piracy, but it's not foolproof. Determined attackers may try to circumvent DRM protections by exploiting software vulnerabilities, reverse engineering app code, or using screen recording tools to capture content—making a multi-layered approach that includes app shielding measures ideal.
Case in point, in 2021, attackers stole and leaked more than 100 gigabytes of content from Amazon's Twitch game streaming platform, including unreleased projects and source code. The incident highlighted the constant threat of intellectual property theft.
Weak password policies, lack of multi-factor authentication, and flaws in session management give attackers an easy path to user accounts. Credential stuffing attacks, where hackers use lists of stolen username and password combinations to get into accounts, are particularly common.
To counter this, implement robust authentication systems to prevent unauthorized access and protect user data by enforcing strong password mechanisms and multi-factor authentication. Regular auditing and testing of these systems ensure a secure environment for subscribers, while features like rate limiting help prevent brute-force attacks.
Securing the streaming app itself is only half the battle. Malware on a user's device, whether it's a smart TV, smartphone, or laptop, can also compromise the security of the streaming service. Keyloggers can capture login credentials, screen capture tools can record content, and rooted or jailbroken devices can bypass security measures like root detection and tamper prevention.
Attackers may also try to sideload modified versions of streaming apps with DRM protections removed. To counter these threats, app shielding techniques help strengthen app integrity on all devices. Obfuscating code, employing runtime application self-protection (RASP), and using white-box cryptography are effective methods to prevent tampering.
These threats aren't just theoretical. Here are some attacks that took place over the last few years:
Integrating security into every stage of the app development process—from initial design through deployment and maintenance—is crucial for building resilient streaming apps. The SSDLC provides a framework for consistently applying security best practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
For OTT apps, this means considering the unique challenges of video streaming from the outset. Architects and developers need to design the app with security in mind, choosing robust DRM solutions, adopting secure coding practices, and using encryption to protect sensitive data.
Threat modeling exercises can help identify potential vulnerabilities and attack vectors early in the development process, when they're easier and less expensive to fix. Static code analysis tools can also catch common security flaws before they make it into production.
Encryption using industry-standard algorithms like AES-256 helps secure sensitive information, including login credentials, personal details, and payment information.
Data should be encrypted at rest—when it's stored on servers or user devices, and in transit—when it's being transmitted over the internet. Secure communication protocols like transport layer security (TLS) help protect data in transit from man-in-the-middle attacks and eavesdropping.
Streaming apps often cache video content on user devices to enable offline viewing and reduce bandwidth consumption. But this cached content is a prime target for attackers looking to bypass DRM protections and pirate content.
Secure storage protocols can mitigate this risk by encrypting cached content and storing it in protected containers. Obfuscation techniques also make it harder for attackers to reverse engineer the app and locate the cached files. Jailbreak and root detection security features can prevent the app from running on compromised devices, where attackers may have more tools to bypass secure storage and extract content.
Regular, secured backups of app data and configurations provide a safety net in the event of a breach, ransomware attack, or data loss incident. Encrypted backups should be stored in a separate, secured location from production systems. You can also automate backups and testing the restore process to ensure that the app can quickly recover from an incident with minimal data loss or downtime.
While a DRM helps prevent unauthorized access and distribution of video content, savvy pirates can still find ways to bypass it by exploiting software vulnerabilities and screen capture tools.
To protect your content, you need a multi-layered approach by:
Securing user accounts is critical to prevent unauthorized access, protect personal information, and enforce content permissions. A robust authentication and authorization framework is the foundation of this security.
Enforcing strong password policies that require a minimum length and complexity, encouraging the use of password managers, and multi-factor authentication can be made mandatory for sensitive actions like changing account details or making purchases.
Streaming apps can take cue from Netflix’s account security policies that use authorization systems to ensure users can only access the content and features they’ve subscribed to and have account-level permissions. The company regularly audits and tests these systems to catch vulnerabilities.
Implementing rate limiting and CAPTCHAs can also help prevent brute force attacks and credential stuffing, while anomaly detection algorithms can flag suspicious login attempts or unusual account activity for further investigation.
Even with robust server-side security controls, streaming apps can still be vulnerable to client-side attacks. Attackers may try to reverse engineer the app code, tamper with the runtime environment, or inject malicious code to bypass security measures and extract content or sensitive data.
App shielding techniques like the following can harden the app against these attacks:
With the stakes so high, choosing the right app shielding solution is important to protect your streaming app and intellectual property. Here are some key factors to consider when evaluating app shielding providers:
By partnering with a trusted app shielding provider that meets these criteria, you can ensure that your streaming app has the strongest possible protection against the ever-evolving threat landscape.