IT contractors may see an increase in job vacancies as a leading information security consultancy claims the private sector is not prepared to defend itself against a large-scale cyber attack.

According to a recent report from the Lords EU Home Affairs Sub Committee, the UK is "leading the way" in the EU in terms of IT security.

The committee added that while the UK is under constant threat from cyber crime, it was "reasonably well placed" to deal with the threat.

However, according to Jens Kirschner, spokesperson for IT security consultancy 7safe, this may well be true of government departments, but there are still far too many breaches occurring at corporate level.

"There [are] a lot of [security breaches occurring] and the fact that it is happening is demonstrating that the private sector is not that well prepared on the whole to prevent that sort of attack," Mr Kirschner said.

Finance analysts Deloitte recently claimed that cyber criminals are innovating at a pace which many target organisations and security vendors cannot hope to match.