SMEs are "more aware" of cyber-crime but it still remains a big issue, one industry body believes.

A spokesperson for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that phishing emails were a problem that firms were beginning to recognise and deal with.

However, she added: "It [cyber-crime] is an issue. We had some interesting stats in the last survey we did, saying that about 20 per cent of businesses were actually deterred from making greater use of online trading because of the fear of online crime and the fear of card fraud."

She said that this was a "huge" figure and could hold back the expansion of businesses in the UK.

In August of last year the FSB said that only 18 per cent of UK-based SMEs were selling products online.

Research conducted by Get Safe Online in June 2007 found that 44 per cent of SMEs in the UK had been the victim of cyber crime.

According to a 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).