Allot: Major sports events increase enterprise network risks

Large sporting events such as the recently-wrapped 2016 Rio Olympics don’t just strain network resources, according to Allot Communications. User behavior changes in ways that increase enterprise network risks, the company found.
Allot has been looking at security from the user behavior point of view, rather than focusing on malware or external actors, according to Yaniv Sulkes, AVP of marketing at Allot. Developing profiles of users based on big data analytics helps the company “see what groups are more at risk than others,” he said.
By analyzing large data samples taken before and during large sporting events this year, Allot found a few key indicators that reflect riskier user behavior during such events: more people accessed sports-related content than usual and people changed their online behavior. That translated to more social media engagement – which can be risky in terms of users following shared links that may lead to infected sites, he noted – and gambling. Gambling sites are well-known to be a source of malware and viruses, and Allot reported in February that gambling sites were the riskiest websites to visit.
In the case of the Olympics, Allot looked at network data samples taken before and during the opening ceremonies earlier this month. Using a random sampling of 1 million global mobile users, the company found that risks more than doubled for enterprise networks, based on how business-user behavior shifted. Allot said that overall, about 23% of sports fans accessing Olympics-related content were business users. It said that 20.3% of such users were at risk based on their behavior prior to the opening ceremonies, and that reached 45.6% during the opening ceremonies. The percentage of enterprise-user sports fans using “risky social media apps” more than tripled from pre-Olympic activity, Allot added, rising from 9.7% to 30.2%.
Cyberthreats based on user behavior patterns also saw a similar spike during the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament earlier this year, according to Allot.
The data offers insights to help businesses prepare to mitigate enterprise network risks and also represents an opportunity for service providers to better tailor their security offerings, Sulkes added. Allot recently launched a collaboration with Intel Security to provide a security solution that offers both device- and network-based features.
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