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An independent advisory body for SMEs has said that running a business from home can provide significant cost savings.

The National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA) has said that developments in the internet have released some of the financial strain business owners face in getting their companies off the ground.

Statistics by Flexibility found that the number of employees working from home had risen by 11 per cent in 2005.

NFEA chief executive George Derbyshire said: ‘The NFEA network of enterprise agencies is now seeing a larger number of new business start-ups operating their businesses without the use of a traditional office.’

He added: ‘Of course, many of today’s business operations can be run with a mobile or by email.’

Mr Derbyshire said that as the businesses grow they may have to move to larger premises but that for the early stages it was an economically sensible decision for SMEs to make.

However, he added that it was still important to run a professional operation.

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Hacking has become an increasingly professional operation, as cyber crime becomes ever more lucrative, a leading security expert has said.

Joe Telafici, vice president of operations for McAfee’s Avert Labs, told the BBC that there had been a clear trend in the last year towards malware designed to make money.

Instead of the debilitating effect of a shutdown or the irritant-style spam which might slow down a PC, Mr Telafici says attacks have become more focussed on theft.

“2007 was a fairly interesting year,” he commented, adding that an “eco-system” surrounding the solicitation of money from unsuspecting users had sprung up.

As well as criminals using the tools to try to scam money from users, security threats are being commercialised and offered on the open market, with those without the expertise to perform hacks now able to operate applications which do it for them.

The advent of new web-based applications such as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, which include a welter of personal data and opportunities for illicit access, has further muddied the waters for security analysts.

The sites, which soared in popularity in 2007, are expected to be a target for hackers this year.

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