A new survey has found that IT managers often blame employees for internet security breaches, underlining the need for IT network support, IT Pro reports.

Dynamic Markets questioned 750 IT managers in the UK and Europe, and found that less than half used any kind of web filtering.

Further, almost a quarter of SMEs have internet usage policies in place, and many of those that do have them do not make employees sign them.

Almost a third of managers cited employee behaviour as the main problem when attempting to put IT security in place.

"We urge all small to medium size businesses to make IT security a business-critical issue," said Mark Murtagh of Websense, which commissioned the research.

"Leaving their employees to make security decisions based on what they feel is right is not only putting company confidential data at risk, but also adding strain to the IT department.

"Internet use policies need to be automated to ensure that hidden dangers are found and protected against."

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'