A leading IT security firm is advising businesses to educate their staff on the subject of cybercrime, which could lead to job roles for IT contractors.

Panda Security worked with authorities in the successful shut down of the Mariposa botnet, which infected around 13 million computers worldwide.

In a report that reviews the impact of Mariposa, the company suggests that of the 190 countries infected by the botnet, those who had recently run security awareness campaigns were less significantly affected.

Luis Corrons, technical director at Panda Security, cited one case where a business simply educating its staff on IT security saw the number of employees falling victim to a cyber attack fall by 90 per cent.

"The main thing is education and training of the users. I know this sounds strange – many people say, 'I'm running a business, I don't want to train my users on how to do certain things'. But in the end it's worth the effort," Mr Corrons said.

According to a report published last month by IT security firm Symantec, 75 per cent of businesses reported a cyber attack of some form in the last 12 months.