Islington Council in London is to expand its employees' opportunities to work from home by installing the Trusted Client platform, which allows workers to securely access corporate networks remotely.

The technology, provided by Becrypt, is a simple key fob and will enable any of the council's workforce to securely access its network through their home PCs, while preventing any malware to leak through from the private system and limiting the council data that can be kept on the home computer.

Adrian Gorst, head of ICT service delivery at Islington Council, commented: “Trusted Client was the knockout product of Infosec 2009, and it ticked a lot of boxes for us: being the only fully accredited CESG solution of its type, it enables us to fulfil our security obligations, while ensuring that we can accommodate our employee’s flexible working requirements.”

The council hopes that the move with cut around £100 million from its budget over the course of the next four years, which will be around a third of its net total budget. But it should also expand the flexible working options for its employees.

Indeed, chief executive of Becrypt, Bernard Parsons, noted that employers are increasingly required to offer the opportunity to work remotely while ensuring that the enterprise itself is “protected from malware and viruses from home PCs accessing their networks.