The government must do more to help businesses battle IT security threats, one industry body has claimed.

Gareth Elliot, Policy Adviser at the British Chambers of Commerce, explained that the issue of IT security and cyber-crime is a "major concern" for a growing number of companies and the issue needs to be addressed at a national level.

He said: "Much more needs to be done at the governmental level to help businesses protect themselves from cyber-crime and if a dedicated unit can offer much needed focus on this issue, then we would support it."

Mr Elliot added that increasing numbers of firms are facing IT security problems with issues such as phising, spam and viruses.

His comments follow a statement by the shadow home secretary David Davis who claimed that the Conservative party would introduce a dedicated unit for dealing with cyber-crime.

Mr Davis added that his party would also like to see longer sentences for those convicted of such crimes.

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'.