Telecommuters could be unwittingly putting their employers IT infrastructure at risk, a new survey shows.

Technology website Dark Reading reports that a study conducted by Cisco Systems found that more than half of people asked thought the internet was safer than it used to be.

Patrick Gray, senior security strategist at Cisco, told the website that this was a "false sense of security" and could lead to problems for firms.

The survey covered 2,000 people, half of whom were IT professionals and the other half remote workers who used company PCs.

It found that 34 per cent of those surveyed still open spam emails "to see who it's from", despite warnings that this could threaten the security of their computer.

A similar number (33 per cent) admitted to using their work computer for personal tasks.

Research by Websense found that 90 per cent of businesses have suffered from hacker attacks in the last year.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).