Offline marketing campaigns could be the key to improving awareness of online security, according to one industry expert.

Kaspersky, which develops, produces and distributes information security solutions, claimed that educating users about the importance of internet security will help them avoid some of the dangers of going online.

David Emm, senior technology consultant for Kaspersky, said: "Education is important, and it's no quick fix…these things sometimes can be more generational than instant changes in culture.

"With more and more people coming online…what we need to do – as a society – is focus a bit more than we have done on offline messaging."

He added that ideally people should receive the message about internet security before they get online, and suggested that this may entail "reaching them through other ways, such as TV".

Earlier this month the BBC reported that security firms have revealed that the number of malicious programs found online has "reached an unprecedented high".

Although reports do vary, some estimates have suggested that there were five times as many variants of malicious programmes in circulation in 2007 compared with in 2006.

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