IT contractors may be required to help firms to protect themselves from the growing threat of mobile-specific malware.

The scale of the issue has been highlighted by recent research from Juniper Networks, which notes that of the employees issued corporate mobile handsets, just four per cent use it exclusively for business use.

In addition, 81 per cent of workers have admitted that they have used a mobile handset to access a corporate network without permission.

Mark Bauhaus, executive vice-president and general manager of the Service Layer Technologies business group at Juniper, said that now is the time for mobile manufacturers to make security a key part of the design process.

"The industry now needs to step up and make security an integrated part of the mobile experience, not an optional afterthought," he said.

Communications firm Cisco recently revealed that at a quarter of companies, one in four workers issued with company mobiles lose them or have them stolen within a year.