Businesses may be open to a lot of security problems due to complacency following a decrease in security attacks during 2008, it has been stated.

Many companies with lower budgets are becoming more likely to restrict any spending on IT security due to the state of the current financial environment, the latest study from Deloitte shows.

Low employee morale could also contribute to internal security breaches, making the battle for a secure system twice as difficult to monitor, it added.

The leader of Deloitte's financial services security and privacy group Mark Steinhoff said consumer confidence in businesses is waning, meaning firms need to put in extra effort to strengthen such defences.

"While changes in new regulations might demand new investments, how you keep your infrastructure and technologies safe is something all institutions should be focused on in 2009," he concluded.

Fortune magazine has listed Deloitte as one of the best companies for employees ten times since 1998.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.