A new investigation has highlighted the need for disaster recovery after the NHS was found to be plagued with over 8,000 dangerous viruses in the last financial year.

More4 News carried out the survey, which found that one incident in particular - the Mytob worm, which spread to three major London hospitals in November 2008 - overloaded computer networks.

This was enough to disengage certain services and severely affect X-ray, patient and blood test administration.

Speaking to More4, Professor Ross Anderson of the University of Cambridge highlighted the need for better standards.

He explained: "Where you find infections of computers, it's very often symptomatic of poor management of IT, just as when you find infections with MRSA and C-difficile, that's a symptom of poor management of the hospital, of poor management of hygiene and such basic things as cleaning the floors."

A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute found that 12 per cent of 615 public and private sector organisations were hit by data breach incidents as a result of such viruses.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.