Two-thirds of large businesses in the UK have been targeted by cyber attacks in the past year, according to government research.
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that a quarter of those who suffered an attack did so at least once a month.
Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: “The UK is a world-leading digital economy and this government has made cyber security a top priority.
“Too many firms are losing money, data and consumer confidence with the vast number of cyber attacks.
鈥淚t’s absolutely crucial businesses are secure and can protect data.”
The survey said seven out of 10 attacks could have been prevented, while only a fifth of businesses understand the dangers of sharing information with third parties.
UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones warned that smaller companies should be wary of leaving themselves open to attack.
鈥淚t鈥檚 worse than people realise. It鈥檚 not just the big firms, it鈥檚 also the small companies 鈥� so if you have a business online, you have to be aware,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 now easier to extort money from someone using Bitcoin because you can鈥檛 track where that money鈥檚 going. It鈥檚 untraceable and the police are powerless.鈥�
Jones explained the nature of the increasingly sophisticated attacks.
鈥淩ansomware is a big problem at the moment. A client of mine recently downloaded what he thought was a piece of music and it turned out to have a back door into his computer. The computer was then locked down.
鈥淭hey encrypt the data so you can鈥檛 get it back – then charge you money.
鈥淒DOS attacks are where they flood one particular website by targeting it from thousands of computers they鈥檝e taken over.
鈥淭hey then say: 鈥榃e鈥檒l take your e-ecommerce site offline unless you pay us X amount of money.鈥�
鈥淭hen there鈥檚 old-fashioned hacking, where a company may not have updated their software to the latest version.鈥�
However firms are taking measures to counter the criminals, he added.
鈥淐ompanies have security for their physical assets but need to understand that the most prized asset they can have is looking after their customers鈥� data.
鈥淵ou can go to university now and learn how to become a hacker. It鈥檚 better to have someone looking at your site who is being paid by you to try and find the problems rather than being embarrassed down the line.
鈥淓thical hacking is a huge growing area in internet security.鈥�
The government is investing 拢1.9bn over five years to tackle cyber crime.