Cybercrime is now such a regular occurrence that it has become an issue for anyone using the internet, according to an expert.

Neil Fisher, the vice-president of global security solutions at Unisys, stated that police have recently recorded a "significant spike" in online crime over recent months, noting that the financial crisis is causing a major rise in people looking to fraudulent means of obtaining money.

He emphasised: "One very important message to relay, and which often comes up against a brick wall, is that people also have a responsibility to conduct themselves sensibly online."

Mr Fisher explained that while many are cautious for the most part, when they log onto social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, this "goes out of the window".

According to the most recent study by Unisys, it was found that 88 per cent of respondents are now concerned with other people obtaining their details, such as credit or debit cards.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.