Recent research has discovered that malware attacks have risen by 338 per cent during the quarter, meaning that company security systems were at risk.

According to the Global Threat Report by security firm ScanSafe, three-quarters of malware was coming directly from compromised websites, where a malware creator visits a website and corrupts it to distribute bad coding.

Speaking to vnunet.com, senior security researcher Mary Landesman said that password-stealing malware and "backdoor Trojans" had increased by 267 per cent - with much of it targeting key industries such as chemicals and engineering.

Ms Landesman said of the results: "Given the global impact of the energy and oil sector, it is particularly troubling to see that this sensitive sector is at the highest risk of web-based malware."

Last week, it was revealed that a purported security fix released under the Microsoft moniker was malware, with the company adding that it would never distribute updates or files via email.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).