Small and medium-sized businesses are naive about the level of threat posed by cybercriminals, a new study suggests.

More than half of the companies surveyed by McAfee believe they are too small to be noticed by criminals, it is reported in SC Magazine.

However, the publication finds nearly a third of companies in the study had been attacked at least four times in the past three years.

Darrell Rodenbaugh, senior vice-president of the mid-market segment at McAfee, says: "For businesses of all sizes, viruses, hacker intrusions, spyware and spam can lead to lost or stolen data, computer downtime, decreased productivity, compliance issues, lost sales and even loss of reputation."

He pointed out that the small size of a firm does not make it immune to security threats.

Meanwhile, an industry expert has suggested that disaster recovery planning is vital for all businesses.

Frances Coulson, a spokesperson for recovery firm R3, said a good business plan will include details of a disaster recovery plan.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk