A new report has warned that many of the hundreds of thousands of Britons taking up the option of working outside the office are not doing enough to secure their IT systems.

More and more British businesses are enabling staff to work from their homes, but figures from SafeNet show that a majority of IT security technicians rely entirely on password systems to protect their corporate networks.

The recent study makes clear that the threat to company information "floating outside the firewall" is a significant one and suggests that firms across the UK should ensure that their mobile workforces have their systems protected.

"Mobile working and security do not have to be mutually exclusive or even a trade-off," said Gary Clark, vice president of SafeNet in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"Organisations need to adapt their security measures to include more flexible forms of working that allow authorised people in and keep unauthorised people out."

Research carried out by Avaya recently showed that top level business bosses in the UK, the US and Australia are increasingly taking the chance to work from home.