An IT security firm has predicted that more people will work at home this summer.

A survey carried out by SecurEnvoy and reported in SC Magazine, found that 82 per cent more people are working at home this year than were in 2010. The research also revealed that more people are aware of the security risks associated with working at home. Nine out of ten said that they will connect to a network remotely using two-factor authentication.

Just eight per cent of businesses who allow homeworkers to log on remotely require no authentication at all, whilst 88 per cent use physical authentication tokens, the survey found.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said that they believe working from home will become even more popular this year, facilitated by the availability of iPads, 4G and super-fast broadband.

Andrew Kemshall, co-founder of SecurEnvoy, commented, “As more people get gadgets that allow them the flexibility to work wherever, whenever, the more windows the organisation's security team need to monitor."

He added, “If you are going to open up the network's perimeter, you need some way of doing so securely and verifying that those connecting are who they say they are.”