Cyber crime could become a hotbed of fraudulent activity, according to information solutions company Equifax.

It claims that while many people try not to disclose confidential information over the phone or by throwing it away in bins, the rise of cyber crime and cyber identity (ID) theft could be more problematic.

Social Networking sites and phishing scams were cited as potential ways in which fraudsters could attempt to steal confidential information.

Neil Munroe, Equifax external affairs director, said: "I think that what people will need to focus on more to prevent their ID being stolen is more of the cyber-space activity."

According to the UK's Fraud Prevention Service CIFAS, there were 77,500 cases of ID theft in 2007. In 2005 ID fraud cost the UK economy £1.5 billion and accounted for a criminal cashflow of £10 million every day.

News of the rise in cybercrime comes at a time when a BBC News Website experiment reported that home computers could be attacked by hackers over 50 times a night.

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'