Those people who have been tricked by phishing emails are the most willing to learn about internet security, VNUnet reports.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that phishing is successful because people often ignore educational material that could have helped them spot suspect emails.

They sent spoof emails to users and tricked them into visiting an educational website, and then compared this group to another.

The two groups were given anti-phishing educational material, and those that had previously been tricked spent more than twice the amount of time studying the material than those who had not been tricked.

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of phishing emails were identified by the first group, compared to just seven per cent of the other people.

The researchers suggested that using phishing tricks in a controlled environment could be a good way of helping users protect themselves.

Security is becoming increasingly important and it is vital for firms to have IT support in place.

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)