MPA Seeks Network Engineer to Help Expose Online Pirates

In its quest to combat online piracy, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) continues to expand and evolve its anti-piracy toolbox.

This is a necessity since pirates have also learned to adapt over the years and are increasingly taking far-reaching measures to hide their identities.

One major problem is that pirate sites and their operators are often hard to locate and identify. The same is true for illegal streaming services. These regularly use all sorts of tools to avoid detection, including VPNs, reverse proxies, complicated network setups, and various privacy services.

This means that, in order to catch these people, the MPA needs in-house experts who can help to uncover their targets. That’s not always possible, but someone with the right knowledge can certainly be a great asset.

In a recent job offer, the MPA is looking for such an expert. Specifically, the anti-piracy company outfit is seeking to recruit an “Internet Investigator” with a network engineering background.

“The ideal candidate for this position will approach traditional Internet investigations from a technical perspective by creatively applying their skills and knowledge in network engineering to uncover additional evidence,” the MPA writes.

The person who gets this job will become part of the Global Content Protection team which carries out detailed investigations into key piracy players. The goal is to identify the people and organizations that run these pirate services and, just as importantly, the technical infrastructure behind them.

When new and suitable targets are found, these can be referred up the chain. This can result in cease and desist letters, civil lawsuits, or in the most extreme cases a criminal referral to law enforcement agencies.

“Identify cases suitable for further investigation or escalated actions, including civil and criminal actions,” says the MPA of one key responsibility.

The ideal candidate should also be able to proactively identify new targets. This requires knowledge of trends and new developments in the piracy ecosystem as well as the right network engineering skills. The latter is also reflected in the job offer.

The MPA is looking for someone with detailed knowledge of network protocols and services, including VPNs, TCP/IP, DNS, BGP, load balancing, MPLS, HTTP, and SSL. He or she should also be familiar with Whois and DNS lookups, tracerouting, and packet capture analysis by using tools such as WireShark and tcpdump.

In addition, experience with and knowledge of IP addresses, hosting providers, domain name registries, ICANN, IANA, RIPE, ARIN, reverse proxy providers, and whois privacy protection are also welcome.

It’s clear that the MPA is looking for a technical network expert with investigative skills who can at least match the knowledge of pirate site operators.

To win this key position in the anti-piracy apparatus, people can apply through the official MPA website, provided that they possess the highest level of integrity and are able to keep confidential information to themselves.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.