A recent US security poll by WatchGuard Technologies has discovered that 25 per cent of all cyber-security breaches involve a school, with malware and spyware seen to be the biggest threats.

Mark Fullbrook, the director for Cyber-Ark software in the UK and Ireland, said that many small businesses in IT are also getting their security compromised more on a daily basis, yet the vault system - something his own company offers - gives a "different level of security" for those who use it.

However, while this must be safe enough to protect valuable assets, a level of security cannot be placed around the entire thing as then no-one will be able to get in.

Mr Fullbrook asserted that this vault system allows the user to have a very secure repository for their mission-critical data while still maintaining a more general area, meaning that a breach will only affect lower-level data, not the higher-level.

He concluded: "There is nothing more secure than a machine that is not connected to the network, but unfortunately that's not the environment we're working with. People need to exchange information."

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).