Businesses must work to protect their online reputations, as the risks associated with conducting business via the internet increases.

Research firm Gartner found that managing a company's online reputation is becoming a crucial business imperative, with cyber criminals due to use negative information to extort money.

Gartner's Jay Heiser told IT Pro: "If your business depends on a positive internet reputation, then you have little choice than to explicitly manage that reputation online.

"The internet is like a bad-news Petri dish; negative information multiplies and spreads with frightening speed and becomes virtually impossible to erase."

Traditionally, reputation specialists have not had to deal with reputational persistence.

"The fact is that where the internet is concerned the only way to counteract persistent negative information is to overcome it with a greater weight of positive information," he continued.

"This means getting to grips with internet reputation management."

As well as calling for IT helpdesk support, companies can educate employees of the possible dangers and look for ways in which reputations can be improved.

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)