Allot Communications Finds Business-User Cyber Risk More Than Doubles During Rio Olympic Games

HOD HASHARON, Israel, August 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Allot Communications Ltd. ALLT, a leading provider of security and monetization solutions that enable service providers to protect and personalize the digital experience, today released findings into How the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Put Mobile Business Users at Risk. The analysis found that business-user sports fans' risk from malware and other online threats more than doubled during the early days of the Rio Games, with 55% of the potential risk stemming from intensified social media activity.

Major sporting events attract both fans and cybercriminals alike. Cybercriminals take advantage of the increased interest in the events to spread malicious malware and perpetuate fraud through phishing emails with infected links, fake ticket sales, bogus apps, and other methods. The threat to business users is unique in that their online activity poses a risk not only to themselves, but also to enterprise networks.

With a random sample of 1 million global mobile users being monitored before and during the Games, key findings reveal that:

• 23% of sports fans are business users. The percentage of business user sports fans at risk more than doubled, reaching 45.6% during the event versus 20.3% before the event.
• Once the Games began, the percentage of business user sports fans using risky social media apps more than tripled over their pre-event activity, reaching 30.2% during the event versus 9.7% before the event.
• Social media activity was prolific during the opening ceremony with many users multitasking on several social apps. Facebook brands came up on top with the highest percentage of active users engaging in WhatsApp, Facebook and Facebook Messenger during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony.

The analysis builds on the recent Allot Mobile Trends Report Euro 2016 in collaboration with Kaspersky Lab, which revealed that the risk for digitally active sports fans more than doubled during the 2016 UEFA European Championship.

"Rio has the perfect climate for major security threats for two reasons: Firstly, the Games attract cybercriminals targeting unsuspecting sports fans. Secondly, mobile users tend to take risks they wouldn't normally take in their day-to-day lives," said Yaniv Sulkes, AVP Marketing at Allot Communications. "Lessons can be learned from sports events such as Euro 2016 and the Rio Olympic Games. Mobile service providers have an opportunity to educate customers regarding cyber risks and to offer network-based security services to protect mobile devices. Mobile operators who adopt a proactive cyber-protection strategy for their customers will be able to leverage monetization opportunities."

Source Data        

This MobileTrends research is based on data usage records from a random global sample of one million mobile users. Allot collected and sampled data in two different time-frames in order to analyze behavior patterns before and during the Games. For more details on the methodology and for more findings around mobile users' risk during sports events, please download the Allot MobileTrends Report UEFA Euro 2016: How Sports Events Put Mobile Users at Risk.

About Allot Communications 

Allot Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ, TASE: ALLT) is a leading provider of security and monetization solutions that enable service providers to protect and personalize the digital experience. Allot's flexible and highly scalable service delivery framework leverages the intelligence in data networks enabling service providers to get closer to their customers; to safeguard network assets and users; and to accelerate time-to-revenue for value-added services. We employ innovative technology, proven know-how and a collaborative approach to provide the right solution for every network environment. Allot solutions are currently deployed at 5 of the top 10 global mobile operators and in thousands of CSP and enterprise networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.allot.com.

Safe Harbor Statement 

This release contains forward-looking statements, which express the current beliefs and expectations of Company management. Such statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements set forth in such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks relating to: our ability to compete successfully with other companies offering competing technologies; the loss of one or more significant customers; consolidation of, and strategic alliances by, our competitors, government regulation; the timing of completion of key project milestones which impact the timing of our revenue recognition; lower demand for key value-added services; our ability to keep pace with advances in technology and to add new features and value-added services; managing lengthy sales cycles; operational risks associated with large projects; our dependence on third party channel partners for a material portion of our revenues; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts 

Allot Communications 
Sigalit Orr | Director of Marketing Communications and Analyst Relations
+972-9-761-9171 | sorr@allot.com

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry for Allot Communications 
US - Justin Ordman
+1-617-237-0922

UK - Emma Davies
+44-(0)20-7403-8878
allot@rlyl.com

SOURCE Allot Communications Ltd.