There needs to be an increased level of professionalism to tackle the growing problem of IT security threats, one expert has claimed.

ITPro.co.uk report comments by Sun Microsystems cofounder and chairman who also believes that more industry-wide initiatives relating to IT security are needed.

Speaking to the British Computer Society's publication ITNow, he said: "People want to feel safe and comfortable that a technician is not going to compromise their privacy; that they are going to maintain the levels of security in the systems that they work on."

He added that as computer languages and interfaces became increasingly standardised, it will be possible to look at some form of cross-industry IT security certification.

The full interview with Mr McNealy will be published in next week's edition of ITNow.

Last week, a spokesperson for eWiseSystems said that in order to stamp out online fraud, consumers must be educated about IT security.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).