83% of UK businesses allow teleworking – but many lack security

Overall, 83% of the 400 companies interviewed in September said they have staff who work from home on either a regular or occasional basis. Home working was found to be prevalent in 98% of large companies (£20 million or more turnover), 91% of SMEs (£5-20 million turnover) and 79% of smaller businesses (£1-5 million turnover) interviewed.

The survey, conducted by telephone between 9th and 20th September 2002, examined the views of managing directors, financial directors and other senior managers of 400 UK businesses with an annual of between £1 million and £100 million.

It also found that 43% of companies have staff who access the company's network from home, whilst 51% of the respondents said they believe teleworking will become more common.

According to SonicWALL, among those whose staff already access the company's computer network from home, 20% said that security specific for teleworking was not something they had thought about. The majority said they relied on virus checks or firewalls, whilst 2% admitted having no security measures at all.

Other security measures were used less frequently. Fewer than half (44%) of the companies said they made sure the home PC employed content filtering; only 33% said they used Virtual Private Networking (VPN); and only 35% of the respondents said they checked who else has access to the home worker's PC.

Harry Gostling, UK country manager for SonicWALL, said:

"These results clearly show that there is much to do in helping businesses understand the Internet security risks and the range of security solutions available today. The fact that two thirds of British businesses are not encrypting their data via VPN technology should cause widespread concern. We must work together to promote secure remote connectivity solutions for all businesses with remote workers."