As people have more free time around the house than usual, skyrocketing adult content consumption has been widely reported – but now it can be reported that many of the devices used to stream pornography are the same ones used to do remote work.

According to a new report from Kaspersky on how COVID-19 has changed the way people work, half (51%) of remote workers who started to watch more adult content admit they did so on the same devices they use for work-related purposes.

The study, which surveyed 6,000 remote workers from around the world, also found that nearly a fifth (18%) of workers consume porn on devices provided to them by their employers, with 33% admitting to watching adult content on their personal devices that they also use to do their work.

The report reveals that the way people are spending their time has changed for the most part, with 31% of workers saying they are spending more of their time working than they did before.

However, 46% said they have increased the amount of time they spend on personal activity. This is possibly a reflection on the time gained through not commuting for work.

Workers are also developing a habit of using their personal services for working purposes – increasing the potential risks from shadow IT, including the disclosure of sensitive information.

The report found that 42% of respondents use personal email accounts for work-related matters, and 49% admit their usage has increased when working from home.

38% use personal messengers that have not been approved by their IT departments, with 60% of them do it more often in their new circumstances.

“Organisations cannot just fulfil all user requests, such as allowing staff to use any services as they want to,” says Kaspersky chief information security officer Andrey Evdokimov.

“It is necessary to find a balance between user convenience, business necessity and security.

“To achieve this, a company should provide access to services based on the principle of only supplying minimal, necessary privileges, implement a VPN and use secure and approved corporate systems,” says Evdokimov.

“These types of software may have certain restrictions that slightly reduce usability, but offer greater assurances in providing security measures.”

To ensure businesses do all they can to keep their employees and corporate data safe, Kaspersky recommends employers follow these measures:

• Schedule basic security awareness training for employees. This can be done online and cover essential practices, such as account and password management, email security, endpoint security. 
   
• Ensure devices, software, applications and services are kept updated with the latest patches
   
• Install proven protection software on all endpoints, including mobile devices, and switch on firewalls. Any solution used should include protection from web threats and email phishing.