Thanks to sky-high gas prices, more workers are allowed to work from home on occasion. A welcome perk, but if it happens at your office, you’ll have to do extra work to ensure your info and controls are still secure.

The reason: Many companies haven’t kept workers’ home offices up to snuff when it comes to protecting company data and files — especially if employees work from home on an irregular basis.

And even if your IT department put tough controls in place, employees frequently disable them for convenience, or even by accident. The most common problem is with workers using unsecured wireless Internet connections.

If those at-home workers happen to have any documents with sensitive info on their computers (think worker SSNs or a vendor’s e-payment account number) the headaches could multiply for Accounting. Anyone else on the wireless network can siphon off that info without the staffer being any wiser.

It’s worth reminding any managers, invoice approvers and Accounting staffers who may sometimes work from home to keep their security measures strong. You might want to consider asking IT to revise its policies and procedures so employees who do have even indirect access to Accounting info have tougher tech controls in place.

Tags: Fraud prevention, Technology, Telecommuting