IT contractors could help the 75 per cent of businesses who claim to have been victims of cyber crime in the last year.

These businesses lost an average of £1.3 million as a result, according to research by Symantec.

Of the 2,100 businesses from around the world polled, all reported being victims of cyber crime previously, with 92 per cent experiencing financial loss.

Despite this, many companies are not taking the necessary action to safeguard their security systems, according to Luis Corrons, technical director for IT security firm Panda Security.

"Many times people in these companies will say: 'Okay, one computer is affected but I don't really mind'," Mr Corrons said.

However, one company had its IP address blacklisted, after one of its computers became infected with a virus, subsequently sending spam to millions of others.

For IT contractors, the good news is that 84 per cent of companies were looking to manage IT related business risks better, which is of little surprise given the growing threat.

Cyber attacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication, with existing anti-virus solutions rapidly becoming obsolete, according to finance analysts Deloitte.