So-called phishing attacks are on the rise, meaning that both individuals and firms need to be more aware about IT security issues, a new report says.

A study by domain registrar NetNames found that some 60,000 people received phishing emails last month, a 70 per cent increase on the number reported in December 2007.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer at NetNames, said: "Just as phishing seemed to have slipped off the consumer radar, online fraudsters have leapt on the chance to capitalise on this false sense of security and have increased their phishing activity drastically in the past few months."

He added that people need to be more aware of IT security and make sure that they never give out personal details via email.

Last week, firms in the UK were warned that employees accessing social networking sites could present an IT security threat if they accidentally download malicious programmes.

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) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.