A steering committee was established to launch E-Security Awareness Week, which included the Attorney-General's department, the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, Telstra BigPond, eBay Inc., McAfee Inc., Microsoft Corp., Sophos plc and Symantec Corp.

Sean Richmond, senior technical consultant for Sophos said a recent poll of small business found many did not protect their business adequately because they did not fully understand online threats.

Richmond said this is because computer threats have changed considerably over the last 12 months to offer highly targeted attacks at small groups of Internet users.

"Small businesses are especially good targets for cyber criminals because they are often unaware of how to protect their information while online," Richmond said.

"Cyber criminals are using spyware programs, Trojan horses and phishing campaigns to acquire corporate and personal information in the hope of stealing significant amounts of money from their victims.