The Future of Zero Trust and SASE is Now! Watch on-demand

close
close
  • Why Netskope chevron

    Changing the way networking and security work together.

  • Our Customers chevron

    Netskope serves more than 3,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Our Partners chevron

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Highest in Execution. Furthest in Vision.

Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.

Get the report
Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.
We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling
Your Network of Tomorrow

Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.

Get the white paper
Your Network of Tomorrow
Introducing the Netskope One Platform

Netskope One is a cloud-native platform that offers converged security and networking services to enable your SASE and zero trust transformation.

Learn about Netskope One
Abstract with blue lighting
Embrace a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture

Netskope NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud and provides customers with unparalleled service coverage, performance and resilience.

Learn about NewEdge
NewEdge
Netskope Cloud Exchange

The Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.

Learn about Cloud Exchange
Netskope video
The platform of the future is Netskope

Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Next Gen SASE Branch is hybrid — connected, secured, and automated

Netskope Next Gen SASE Branch converges Context-Aware SASE Fabric, Zero-Trust Hybrid Security, and SkopeAI-powered Cloud Orchestrator into a unified cloud offering, ushering in a fully modernized branch experience for the borderless enterprise.

Learn about Next Gen SASE Branch
People at the open space office
Designing a SASE Architecture For Dummies

Get your complimentary copy of the only guide to SASE design you’ll ever need.

Get the eBook
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope achieves FedRAMP High Authorization

Choose Netskope GovCloud to accelerate your agency’s transformation.

Learn about Netskope GovCloud
Netskope GovCloud
  • Resources chevron

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog chevron

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE)

  • Events and Workshops chevron

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined chevron

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Challenging Norms of Women in Cyber
This episode underscores the urgent need for a shift in attitude and acknowledgement of diversity as an essential aspect of cybersecurity organizations.

Play the podcast
Challenging Norms of Women in Cyber Podcast
Latest Blogs

Read how Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
SASE Week 2023: Your SASE journey starts now!

Replay sessions from the fourth annual SASE Week.

Explore sessions
SASE Week 2023
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn about Security Service Edge
Four-way roundabout
  • Company chevron

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Leadership chevron

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Customer Solutions chevron

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Training and Certification chevron

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

Supporting sustainability through data security

Netskope is proud to participate in Vision 2045: an initiative aimed to raise awareness on private industry’s role in sustainability.

Find out more
Supporting Sustainability Through Data Security
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn about Professional Services
Netskope Professional Services
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working

Risky Business: How COVID-19 changed user behavior

Sep 10 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt change — a sudden and lasting shift to remote work for the majority of knowledge workers. The number of people working remotely more than doubled in the span of a few weeks. Among the many challenges that security organizations faced during this transition was a change in user behavior. The behavior profile of a user working from home (and also working alongside all the other members of their household) is a stark contrast to the profile of the same user working from the office. Managed devices are now being used for more personal web browsing, which includes a 600% increase in visits to pornographic websites. Managed devices are also being shared among members of the household, evidenced by a 450% increase in education app usage aligned with the beginning of the school year. This post highlights the increase in personal usage of managed devices, risky web browsing, and device sharing to support remote learning.

Personal Usage

Those who switched from working in an office to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, found once well-defined lines between work and personal life suddenly blurred. Along with this blurring of lines came a change in browsing habits, a doubling of the amount of personal browsing on managed devices.

Figure 1 shows the trend in personal browsing habits for the first half of 2020. It shows the daily total number of visits to websites and cloud apps in the top 5 personal categories, normalized by the number of daily active users on the Netskope Security Cloud platform and displayed as a percentage of their median pre-pandemic levels. Overall, the amount of personal web browsing doubled, led by an increase in visits to “Consumer” and “Streaming & Downloadable Video” websites and cloud apps. 

Figure 1. Personal web browsing and app usage doubles during COVID-19 pandemic
Figure 1. Personal web browsing and app usage doubles during COVID-19 pandemic

“Other” represents additional personal categories of websites and cloud apps, including:

  • Abortion
  • Alcohol
  • Arts
  • Automotive
  • Dating
  • Education 
  • Entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Financial Aid & Scholarships
  • Financial News
  • Forums
  • Games
  • Insurance
  • Job Search/Careers
  • Kids
  • News & Media
  • Pets
  • Tobacco
  • Weapons

Risky Usage

While the amount of personal browsing doubled, the amount of browsing to certain risky categories of websites and apps tripled. Figure 2 shows a breakdown of the top risky categories, led by increases in “Gambling” and “Adult Content”.  Percentage increases in certain categories were even larger, with the number of visits to “Adult Content – Pornography” increasing 6-fold during the pandemic.

Figure 2. Risky web browsing and app usage triples during COVID-19 pandemic

The risks associated with websites and cloud apps in these categories are typically easy to mitigate: organizations block them because their use is a violation of their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). However, this is not always the case. Many of the malicious threats that the Netskope Security Cloud platform detects and blocks are hosted on websites that aren’t in these traditionally risky categories. For example, we detect more malicious content in “Personal Sites & Blogs” than in any other category. Traffic to this category doubled during the pandemic — as shown in Figure 3 —  increasing the risk of exposure to potentially malicious content. This underscores the importance of inspecting web traffic for malicious content.

Figure 3. Visits to “Personal Sites & Blogs” double during COVID-19 pandemic
Figure 3. Visits to “Personal Sites & Blogs” double during COVID-19 pandemic

Device Sharing

The usage of “Education” apps increased 450% at the beginning of the school year, indicating that managed devices are being shared to support remote learning in the home. Figure 4 shows the increase in usage of “Education” apps from the beginning of August 2019 through the end of August 2020. Compared to the average usage from August 2019, the amount of “Education” app usage tripled after the pandemic declaration, slowed over the summer, and has increased to 4.5x at the end of August 2020 as students return to school. Most popular in this family of apps is Google Classroom, the primary driving force behind the increase.

Figure 4. Education app usage increases 3x at the beginning of the pandemic and spikes again at the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year
Figure 4. Education app usage increases 3x at the beginning of the pandemic and spikes again at the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year

Data Analysis

The analysis presented in this blog post is based on anonymized usage data collected by the Netskope Security Cloud platform relating to a subset of Netskope customers with prior authorization.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many knowledge workers to work from home alongside other members of their households. This caused a dramatic change in user behavior that included a doubling in personal device usage, a tripling of visits to risky apps and websites, and increased sharing of managed devices within the household. This is the second installment in a series of blogs covering the effects of COVID-19 on knowledge workers. The first installment covered geographic differences in remote work numbers. For more about recent trends in cloud adoption and security threats from the first half of 2020, please refer to our August 2020 Cloud and Threat Report.

author image
Ray Canzanese
Ray is the Director of Netskope Threat Labs, which specializes in cloud-focused threat research. His background is in software anti-tamper, malware detection and classification, cloud security, sequential detection, and machine learning.

Stay informed!

Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog