New research from chip manufacturer Intel indicates that companies are struggling to keep their IT systems adequately secure.

Although IT managers recognise the importance of security and rate it at the top of their priorities, tight budgets are making measures hard to implement, IT Pro reports.

In fact, nearly a third of the managers polled said that their firms' budget did not allow them to achieve their security aims, leading to IT professionals having to spend nearly a third of their time on security-related tasks.

As well as this, IT people at a quarter of those firms with more than 500 employees are having to spend half their time on security, indicating the importance of IT support and helpdesk systems.

Other results from the survey indicate that external threats are becoming more of a danger to companies.

"It used to be that hackers were motivated by notoriety but they have now become much more malicious in their attempts as they're motivated by financial gain. IT is continually looking for ways to secure the environment," said Diane Bryant of Intel.

According to recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent)