Contractors and other online businesses must put the appropriate measures in place to prevent cyber threats from becoming a reality, one expert has said.

Ian Shaw, managing director of MWR Infosecurity, explained that cyber attacks are often specifically tailored to impact one particular individual or a certain employee within a company.

He added that businesses should not try to adopt new technologies at the same time they are protecting themselves from cyber threats, as this is much more difficult.

"It is not so much just the technology - many of these attacks are a combination of technical attacks [which] use quite specific exploits and a form of social engineering where they are targeting specific employees of companies," he added

This comes after McAfee said that cybercriminals understand there is more value in attacking companies that have little or no cyber protection, meaning that theft of intellectual property is their main goal.