Since joining the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in February, my work as president of the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) has been guided by three core principles: Simplicity, transparency and forward momentum. From the start, I have listened closely to many stakeholders about how TPN can best serve them.
I've talked to domestic and international content owners, vendors and assessors to understand the pain points inherent in the current TPN program, and the many opportunities we have to evolve TPN and solve some of our industry's biggest challenges.
At the NAB Show and the DPP Media Supply Festival earlier this year, I discussed our fast-changing industry, difficulties that exist today around content security, and my commitment to TPN's continued evolution and growth. I also announced three big milestones:
- The publication of an updated TPN site and cloud assessor qualifications in June.
- The publication of updated MPA Content Security Best Practices to include Cloud Security this fall.
- The launch of a new technology platform and updated TPN program that enables vendors to self-report any pre-existing security status and provides an improved experience for TPN site and/or cloud security assessments in Q1 2023.
Just a few months later, I'm proud to report we are right on target. We have already met our first big milestone and are well on our way to the second, and meeting the final challenge.
We published our updated TPN Assessor qualification criteria on June 15th to include both Site and Cloud, and have greatly simplified the qualification process. We have designed the criteria to be more accessible so we can grow global assessor capacity and continue to support competitive, global, market-driven assessment pricing. We are actively listening to the assessor community, and the feedback has been very positive - especially with regard to cancelling the requirement for prospective assessors to travel to the MPA office and take an exam.
The MPA Content Security Best Practices are foundational to the film and TV industry, and it is critical that we continue to evolve this important document to align with our rapidly-changing industry. Clear, concise and standardized Cloud Security Best Practices has been a missing key ingredient for content security, and shortly we will be publishing updated MPA Content Security Best Practices V.5.0 to include both Site and Cloud.
This challenging initiative is being led by TPN's Crystal Pham, vice president of operations and product management, supported by Varuna Gunasekera and David Akhverdyan from the TPN team and our MPA member companies (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Netflix Studios, Universal City Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., and Warner Bros. Discovery). We have also sought feedback from other content owners, service providers and assessors to carefully consider all perspectives, and are currently updating, merging and, in some instances when out-of-date, deleting the original site common guidelines, which has resulted in a significant reduction of controls and improvement in efficiency and clarity.
A big thank you to our Cloud Pilot partners Convergent Risks and Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) for their help, support and feedback along the way to this very important milestone.
Finally, we have completed an RFP process and selected TMT insights to build our new TPN platform. We are well underway with this important initiative to meet our goal of launching the new platform, which will include self-reporting and cloud assessments early in Q1 2023.
We are moving quickly but not without tremendous thought, planning and support toward launching the new TPN platform and program to include Cloud Security and vendor self-reporting in Q1 2023. We will also soon be announcing a new business model for TPN that will introduce new membership tiers for both content owners and vendors.
It is such an exciting time for the TPN program. I am proud of how far we have come, but I know we have more work to do. For the TPN program to provide real value to our stakeholders, it is critical we continue to listen and react to the needs of our key stakeholders.
I will be at IBC in September and will be available to meet and discuss any aspect of TPN's ongoing transformation with you. Please feel free to reach out and schedule time with me at terri_davies@motionpictures.org.
Terri Davies is the president of the Motion Picture Association's Trusted Partner Network.