IT support staff must be vigilant as the launch of new domain names provides opportunities for cybersquatters, one expert warns.

Last year two new top level domain names were launched - .asia and .me - which offer a "wide open market for people to come and take what they want", states Matt Mansell, chief executive officer of Domainmonster.com.

He says that if trademark owners and their IT support teams do not register the names they want, cybersquatters can "jump onboard".

Mr Mansell assures firms that there is a dispute process for the recovery of trademark domain names, which he says works very well, but also warns that as more domain names become available, cybersquatting will continue to rise.

Figures from MarkMonitor released this month show that cybersquatting rose 18 per cent last year, with 440,584 instances identified.

Abuses of apparel and media brands rose by 28 and 11 per cent respectively.

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).