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Advances in mobile and business IT sectors has led to an "increase in espionage", it has been claimed.

Chris Taylor, a forensic investigator for IT firm Espion, told Silicon Republic the growth and availability of advanced technology is causing problems for investigators.

He told the website the advances in data storage and business IT hardware mean security firms now have "a massive volume of data" to analyse.

Meanwhile, Jason Miles Dibley, a director for QCC Interscan, told the source: "Espionage is on the increase, as bug technology is much easier to get hold of and the credit crunch and growing competition will lead to even more."

The website adds the average size of a data seizure is 180GB, with a forensic investigator having to devote a week to searching a hard-drive of this size.

Meanwhile, a report published last week by management agency Akamai claimed website hacking is on the increase.