AI-Driven Attacks Are Rising. Your Defences Should Rise Faster.

If you work in media, there’s a good chance your network is being probed more often than you realise.

Cyber criminals are increasingly using AI to target studios, post houses, and VFX teams with far more precision than before - not in a dramatic, movie-style way, but quietly, persistently, and at scale.

Phishing emails are harder to spot. Malware adapts as it runs. Networks are scanned continuously for weaknesses, often automatically, and far faster than any human team can realistically track.

If you’re handling valuable pre-release content, this isn’t just an IT concern anymore. It’s a business one.

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Why Media Has Become a Natural Target

Media companies have always had a certain gravitational pull for attackers. High-value assets, immovable deadlines, and complex production chains create pressure points that are easy to exploit.

What’s changed is efficiency.

AI allows attackers to move away from broad, noisy campaigns and toward smaller, more targeted ones. Messages are tailored to real roles. Malware mutates to avoid detection. Vulnerability scans don’t sleep.

A lot of security setups in media were never designed for this pace. They assume threats move slowly, follow predictable patterns, and give you time to respond.

That assumption doesn’t really hold anymore.

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When Something Breaks, It’s Rarely “Just IT”

When a security incident happens in a media environment, the impact tends to spread quickly.

A single compromised system can delay production, interrupt delivery schedules, or raise uncomfortable conversations with clients. In the worst cases, unreleased content leaks and trust and reputation is hard to rebuild once it’s gone.

AI-driven threats change the risk equation. They compress timelines and remove margin for error. By the time something is visible, damage is often already done.

The Limits of “Set-and-Forget” Security

Many security tools are installed with good intentions and then largely left alone and that worked when threats were slower and more predictable.

But AI-driven attacks don’t wait for scheduled updates or quarterly reviews. They adapt continuously, test defences constantly, and exploit gaps the moment they appear.

At this point, the question isn’t whether you have a firewall. It’s whether anyone is actively watching it, updating it, and responding when something looks off.

Without that, security becomes reactive. (And reactive usually means late). 

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Why Media Workflows Don’t Fit Generic Security

Moving huge files around. Collaborating across locations. Streaming high-resolution content all day, that’s just normal media work. To a lot of security tools, though, it looks strange and sometimes suspicious.

That disconnect creates problems in both directions. Real threats can get buried in background noise. Legitimate work gets flagged or slowed down. And when that happens often enough, people start working around the system just to get their jobs done.

Obviously, none of that is great.

At a basic level, security in media has to understand how the work actually happens, not how networks behave in theory, but how production teams actually move data, collaborate, and deliver on deadlines.

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Smaller Teams Aren’t Safer - They’re Often More Exposed

There’s a common assumption that serious security is something you invest in once you’re “big enough”, but in practice, smaller production and post teams are often targeted precisely because attackers assume protections are lighter and recovery options are limited.

Budgets may be smaller, but the cost of an incident doesn’t scale down. A single ransomware attack or asset leak can easily outweigh years of preventative investment.

That reality is starting to sink in.

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A More Practical Approach Some Teams Are Taking

More media teams are moving away from trying to build and maintain their own network security from scratch.

Part of that shift is a reaction to changing threats, but just as much of it is about resourcing. Teams are leaner than they used to be. Fewer people are expected to cover more ground, and dedicated network or security specialists aren’t always part of the picture anymore.

Instead, many teams are turning to managed, media-specific connectivity delivered as a service, something that’s actively monitored and maintained over time, rather than installed once and left alone.

That’s where Sohonet comes in.

Sohonet provides professional-grade Internet connectivity and managed security built specifically for media workflows, delivered through simple, predictable monthly pricing. We take responsibility for keeping networks secure, stable, and performing as they should - handling monitoring, updates, troubleshooting, and threat response so teams don’t have to.

In practice, that means firewalls are monitored continuously, patches and updates are applied proactively, and suspicious activity is investigated before it becomes a disruption. And because the service is designed for media environments, it supports high-volume file transfers and distributed teams without slowing work down.

For growing post, VFX, and production teams, this removes a long-standing constraint. You get the resilience and protection needed to operate confidently, without overstretching budgets or resources.

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The Question Has Quietly Changed

For a long time, the question was simply whether a security setup was good enough. That question feels outdated now.

The more useful questions tend to sound like this:

“How often is our network being tested without us noticing?”

“How quickly would we know if something wasn’t right?”

“How much disruption could we absorb before it starts affecting delivery or client trust?”

“And how long are we comfortable relying on luck?”

These aren’t hypothetical concerns. They’re practical ones, especially for teams handling valuable content under real deadlines.

Raising your defences isn’t about chasing worst-case scenarios. It’s about putting yourself in a position where problems don’t immediately become crises.

If you’re not sure how exposed your network really is, it may be time for a closer look. Talk to Sohonet about managed connectivity and security designed specifically for media workflows.