Too many companies are unaware of the information which their employees can access, it has been revealed.

According to Donal Casey at Morse, an international consultancy company which offers IT advice, the workplace structure can mean that members of staff can get hold of all kinds of information, from employee records to payroll data.

He said that small businesses in IT, along with their bigger rivals, should have solid security systems in the company to track and audit the movement of confidential data to prevent a leak of important information.

Mr Casey concluded: "Organisations should have policies and procedures in place that dictate what information can and can't be taken off the premises. Having these types of policies and procedures in place will create a culture where people start to think about their actions."

According to the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's 2008 report on security breaches, 55 per cent of companies have a documented security policy in place, up from 27 per cent in 2002.

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.