The mailing list for the BBC Electric Proms was broken into by hackers who used the list to send spam emails advertising anti-impotence drugs amongst other things, it has emerged.

It was announced by the broadcasting company that although the emails did not contain any viruses, no personal details were passed on to anyone in what it noted was a potential data loss, apologising for the situation.

However, chairman of the all-party Commons Culture Committee John Whittingdale the event was very worrying, as the BBC was a name that households up and down the country had come to trust.

Mr Whittingdale added: "The idea that the BBC, albeit inadvertently, could be used to distribute potentially harmful emails which could lead to ID theft is something that I expect them to take very seriously indeed."

Earlier this month, Richard Clayton of Cambridge University noted that emails beginning with the letters Q, Y and Z were less likely to receive spam, with A, M, P, R and S being the most likely targets.

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'