An expert at data security firm Norton has warned that businesses with a lax approach to the need for data recovery are most risk from cyber criminals.

Simon Ellson said that the cyber-criminals know which businesses are the most vulnerable and select these as easy targets for their attacks. They then harvest personal data and other sensitive information for financial gain and leave their victims facing a bill for data recovery.

He stressed that “it’s now more important than ever to protect yourself online from phishing attacks or spam, and people need to take the necessary precautions to prevent themselves from becoming a victim”.

Businesses with lower profit margins, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are especially prone to hard disk failure, cyber-attacks and other issues involving data recovery, according to a study by City Lifeline unveiled at the IP Expo this year. Since SMEs often think that adequate data recovery and security services are luxuries they cannot afford, they are often the most frequently targeted, and the lost production as a result of this ends up being far more financially ruinous than the initial outlay.

Mr Ellson also had advice for home users, or people who take the work laptop out of the office. Noting that many people “often have the ‘it will never happen to me’ attitude” when it comes to cyber attacks, he said that as well as purchasing adequate online security protection, parents should also explain to their children what to do when faced with an email from an unknown address, and to teach them to use anti-virus software to scan emails and the computer itself .