People need to educate themselves on IT security

While he believes that the European Union’s Cybercrime Centre will be good for big companies and government departments, Graeme Batsman, director of Datadefender.co.uk, feels its impact will be limited for SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) and consumers.

Indeed, he believes such firms and people need to help themselves rather than hoping for support from the European Union and the first step in doing that is improving their education and learning more about how IT works.

“More people are using computers and they have to wake up,” he said. “General education of everyone is needed - from company owners to police and home users. Terms such as 'military grade encryption' on websites do not mean they are secure.”

He feels that despite there being much talk in the media about increased risk of cybercrime, many firms just do not realise the impact it can have or fail to see the fact their existing security measures are not up to the required standard.

Mr Batsman stated: “Most business users don't care - the assumption is they've got this hefty firewall in place so that's everything done.

“The responses I get [suggests they leave it] to the IT guy and he doesn't really have a clue about what he's doing. He's good for basic support and curating email, but he doesn't know much else."

His comments come shortly after Koby Amedume, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) marketing director at IT systems management provider Kaseya, said that firms should only allow mobile-working or take part in the BYOD (bring your own device) craze after ensuring that they have the correct level of IT security in place.

Indeed, he feels that while flexibility is key for many companies in the modern world, far too many go into it with a blasé or uninformed attitude.

Breaking news from iHotdesk, IT security solutions in London