Telecommuting is a powerful tool for both employees and employers, and Web 2.0 technology is making it much more feasible for more workers than ever before. It’s a trend that will only increase, and we’re seeing that the very definition of what we think of as a “job” is changing constantly. And with the greater incidence of “virtual companies,” the concept of “company” is also changing, as more firms adapt to a business model that requires no physical office at all.

But what does all this mean for security? Ultimately, if it’s done right, there is no added security risk at all. Yet, IT security people in charge of telecommuting are always full of stories, and are always willing to bend your ear to tell you what nightmares telecommuting can create. And for smaller companies that may not even have a full-time IT security guy, telecommuting security may actually wind up getting sidelined. As a result, the office may be completely secure, but when an employee works from home, all bets are off.

A CSO Online article on four telecommuting security mistakes sheds some light on the risks of telecommuting, and it’s very true that telecommuting can pose some serious security issues. However, the solution is not to prevent telecommuting. Telecommuting, teleworking and virtual companies are the future of business, and companies need to use these tools to maintain an edge. It’s up to the security folks to create an infrastructure that provides security outside of the corporate walls, and to educate people as to the good use of policies.

Top on the list is “careless use of Wi-Fi and accessing unsecured networks.” This is a big one. A rogue WiFi network may be set up as a trap, to let hackers snoop in on your activity, and possibly even read your emails. The three others are allowing other people to use work-issued devices, altering security settings, and leaving the work-issued device in an unsecure place.

I will add to this another common mistake, and that is using personal email accounts to send company-related messages. When you’re working from home, it may be easier to just use your own personal email rather than log onto the corporate email server if you just have a few quick emails to send, and it may seem harmless enough. But it’s bad policy for several reasons. For one, it just appears to be unprofessional, especially if you have assigned yourself a “cute” email address. Also, there is a higher likelihood that your message will get filtered out by the recipient’s spam filter. If you do business with a certain supplier on a regular basis, for example, that supplier’s spam filter will have been set to recognize your company’s domain–but when it receives an email from your personal Hotmail account, there’s a chance it will be mistaken as spam, and filtered out.