Remote workers are posing an increasing threat to businesses security, according to market research firm InsightExpress.

More than half (55 per cent) of respondents believe homeworking staff are becoming less diligent about security awareness, an 11 percentage point increase from the year before.

People are generally more lax about security when they are at home, according to John Stewart, chief security officer at Cisco, which sponsored the research.

"The blurring of the lines between work and home, and between business lives and personal lives, presents a growing challenge for businesses seeking to capitalise on the productivity benefits of the remote workforce," he said.

Globally, 12 per cent of remote workers admit to accessing a neighbour's wireless connection. And in the UK the percentage nearly doubled from 6 per cent to 11 per cent.

And three times as many UK homeworkers were allowing others to use their work PCs.

Analyst Gartner predicts that the number of people working from home will increase at 4.3 per cent a year, and reach 46.6 million people by the end of 2011.