IT contractors may be the "knights in shining armour" during the World Cup, it has been suggested.

Nearly nine out of ten professionals responsible for the performance of a business or organisation's computer network have admitted they would give up watching a key World Cup fixture to fix an IT disaster, according to research by Tufin Technologies.

Slightly more UK IT contractors said they would interrupt the important sports fixture than their counterparts in the US, who were asked a similar question about the US SuperBowl.

Commenting on the findings, Tufin Technologies marketing and business development vice president Shaul Efraim said: "IT professionals have been busy preparing for this event in the months preceding the opening ceremony in South Africa, fully aware that there will be others within the organisation that could compromise the system by streaming video content, downloading apps and visiting websites - all potentially harbouring and injecting malicious code."

The research follows comments from Blue Coat Systems, which indicates that company networks are at serious risk of failure if managers allow staff to stream games to their desktop PCs.