IT contractors may be required to help firms improve their data security processes this festive season.

A new survey from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association has found that the average UK employee expects to spend six hours shopping online from a work PC in the build up to Christmas.

In addition, it was found that there has been an increase in the number of employees engaging in "risky" practices, such as opening unknown links in emails.

Get Safe Online managing director Tony Neate believes that firms need to do more to protect themselves from such threats, as well as educating staff on how their behaviour can be improved.

"There needs to be access control on a lot of computers. The most important thing first, is to make sure they have got policies and procedures in place, so people understand what they can do and what they can't do," he said.