TVB New Media Group Limited

MyTV Super successfully launched on April 18, 2016, delivered via a TVB™-branded set-top box and mobile application. It provides unrivaled picture quality, seamless catch-up and a rich content offering consisting of TVB’s terrestrial and thematic channels, as well as other international brand channels, a vast selection of video-on-demand content from TVB’s archive and third-party providers, and exclusive first-run local dramas and variety programs. For convenient viewing, MyTV Super incorporates a three-hour instant rewind capability into TVB-branded linear TV channels.

TVB New Media Group’s existing firewall technology was becoming outdated, and the company was struggling to handle the sophisticated threats and technologies that were appearing. The company wanted to find a next-generation firewall that could provide Layer 7 application control, cope with the latest malware and ensure compliance with auditor requirements.

"The nature of malware has changed in the past year with the emergence of new threats, such as ransomware. Put simply, a traditional firewall cannot protect us anymore," explains Rex Ching, head of Technical Engineering for TVB New Media Group. "Our old system had been in place for five years and was reaching end-of-life, so we needed to find a new solution that would keep our users in China and Hong Kong safe."

Rex and his team undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the market, looking at three key criteria: technical requirements, performance and price. Following benchmarking and proof-of-concept exercises, TVB New Media Group found that Palo Alto Networks^® scored the highest in both performance and protection.

"Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall was the obvious choice. And once we had tested certain security rules, it was simple to deploy," adds Rex. "It is essentially plug-and-play that requires only a minimal time to complete migration. Working with local partner B & Data made the requisite configuration easy, too."

The company deployed a Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall – one far superior to traditional firewalls. Not based on traditional port-and-protocol filtering, the next-generation firewall allows the safe enablement of applications, simplified traffic classification, easier management, fewer rules, lower TCO and, of course, enhanced security.

The Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall is a component of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform which includes the Next-Generation Firewall, Threat Intelligence Cloud, and Advanced Endpoint Protection.

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall classifies all traffic, including encrypted traffic, based on application, application function, user and content. This enables TVB New Media Group to create comprehensive, precise security policies to safely enable its applications. Only authorized users may run sanctioned applications, greatly reducing the surface area for cyberattacks across the organization.

"Previously, we had to manage IP access ourselves and had no visibility of upper layers, such as URL addresses," says Rex. "Now, we don’t need to depend on the destination IPs, with Palo Alto Networks enabling us to easily permit or deny any action or attempt to access."

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One of the most immediate benefits of Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall is reduced manual intervention. Automating a significant swath of processes saves Rex and his team hours of work each week, freeing them up to spend that time on more strategic objectives.

More important, however, is the enhanced security the company now enjoys, helping keep it safe from ever-evolving threats, maintain optimal uptime and minimize costs.

"If network attacks were successful, it would cost us more than actually deploying the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall. There is too much at stake, so having that peace of mind is essential," continues Rex. "We regularly see suspicious DNS requests and viruses in the network traffic, but the new firewall easily filters them out."

Palo Alto Networks also provides better network visibility via an intuitive graphical user interface. A single, granular view of traffic helps Rex and his team track performance and understand application usage, facilitating better performance and smarter decision-making.