Small and medium-sized businesses struggle to keep pace with the diverse range of potential IT security threats according to security software vendor Webroot.

The vast majority of businesses surveyed cited viruses and worms as the greatest IT security threat to their business. However, many of them underestimated the potential damage spyware could wreak on their business. According to Webroot, the number of websites harbouring spyware has increased by 183% since January 2007.

And despite 96% of respondents reporting that they had installed anti-virus software, 60% of respondents still reported infections in the last year – highlighting the difficulty in keeping pace with this evolving threat.

It seems on first glance that these organisations are taking strident steps to protect themselves as almost all (96%) say that they have an antivirus solution installed. It is therefore surprising that over 60% of respondents in Canada, France and the US still reported an infection in the past year.

A lack of financial resources combined with the scarcity of technology skills is hampering SMEs’ ability to counteract Internet security threats. The respondents also noted that increasingly sophisticated mobile handsets had opened up new avenues of risk.

Nevertheless, some basic steps could help further alleviate some of this risk. Almost six in 10 of the companies polled admitted they had yet to implement company policies governing the usage of work computers.