More and more work is now being done from home or remotely, which provides great benefits and quality of working life to employees, and can help an employer to lower costs and motivate their workforce.  But what risks are there to working ‘outside the firewall’ that most businesses IT departments provide for workers in the office?

Security firm Tripwire have conducted a survey of over 1,000 remote workers in the UK and US, and found that 85% of them use the default IP address on their wireless router. Worryingly, the same study found that only half of the 600 IT and security professionals surveyed at the same time had adjusted their IP address – and they really should know better!

The results of the study also recorded that 52 percent of IT professionals and 59 percent of employees haven’t updated the firmware on their routers sine purchase, and 30 percent of IT professionals and 46 percent of employees haven’t yet changed the default admin password on their routers.

So the freedom to work away from the office does carry with it some significant security risks. Some companies will already have requirements in place for those choosing to work remotely, but for others, perhaps knowing that basic wifi security measures are not being undertaken may make them rethink their policy.