JAWZ, Emagebox to build secure network for entertainment, advertising transfer

A group of Toronto security consult has gotten onto the ground floor of the emerging digital content protection industry through a new partnership. JAWZ Inc has formed a partnership with Toronto-based Emagebox.com Inc to help build a new network for the distribution of entertainment and advertising material. The company was chosen as the encryption and protection vendor for Emagebox’s as-yet-unannounced Linux-based digital warehouse and distribution network, details of which are being kept under tight wraps until the product launches late this year. JAWZ officials say the network will provide unprecedented file transfer speeds for digital and digitized content such as advertising spots for static and interactive displays. JAWZ’s role will be to support a variety of ways to authenticate users, including a public key infrastructure (PKI) and even biometric identification systems. Emagebox is developing new compression algorithms for the network which will take advantage of increasingly pervasive broadband pipes. Tim Conroy, director of corporate communications at JAWZ, told Canadian NEW MEDIA that the network will replace what he dubs the "sneaker-net" for advertising and entertainment files which, until recently, were distributed physically on VHS tape or CD-ROMs. "They have the ability to segment that data and display it given the characteristics of the requirement. They can do a one-on-one presentation of a unique sequence of information clips and media to an individual scenario that is requested by a client. They can also broadcast the same thing to a hundred places if they wanted to," he says. "This is unique because then they’re going to start to figure out how they can really address the information age where everybody wants information on demand." Conroy says data protection will be key to the new network since time will be eliminated as a factor in distribution. "The really innovative part of this is that if you’re really going to be reducing the time requirements to getting information out into the network, and you’re going to diversify the potential content that you’re going to get out in the network, then you have to be careful that you’re getting the right information out to the right people at the right time. That’s where JAWZ comes in." He says JAWZ will work to ensure that data is encrypted both in transit and in storage to prevent its misuse or unauthorized duplication or tampering. He warns, however, that companies must consider the overall value of information they want to protect before going to the expense of protecting their data. "Your expenses relating to security should always match the asset that you’re trying to protect, and the risk of someone trying to do something to it. "If there’s not a lot of risk in someone trying to change advertising, then there’s probably not a lot of money spent in protecting it – but in making sure that the right content gets delivered." While nothing is guaranteed hack-proof, Conroy says the tools exist today to sufficiently protect entertainment content. "The encryption technologies that are out there are very, very strong. It’s unlikely that somebody’s going to be able to break into it this year. And, in the entertainment business, if it isn’t this day or this week, it’s not relevant." While JAWZ has a lower profile than other security companies such as Verisign, Baltimore or Entrust, the company says it has more than enough expertise to help Emagebox as it launches its new network. Among other projects, the company provided all the integration and management services to protect the Canadian PCS spectrum auction early this year, which was run completely online using the Entrust security product. It also provided its services on a pro bono basis for the federal government when it provided digital signature services for the most recent international trade agreement.

JAWZ, Emagebox to build secure network for entertainment, advertising transfer

Broadcast | May 17, 2001

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