People who are aware of ways to stop putting themselves at risk when using the internet are less at risk from cybercrime than they are if they solely rely on technology, it has been said.

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at appliances provider Sophos, said that people needed to think of cybercrime in real terms - the threat of the people behind the viruses and malware - instead of the immediate threats themselves.

He said: "I don't think there's any kind of magic bullet really that solves the computer crime problem. Essentially the computer crime problem is a human problem rather than a technical one."

Mr Cluley emphasised that if people did not upgrade their brains instead of their security systems, criminals would continue to do these activities to the detriment of their personal computer or their network, should they be a small business in IT.

In its Security Report 2009, Sophos revealed that when an American company was stopped from collaborating with spammers and hackers last November, there was a 75 per cent drop in global spam levels.

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).