McAfee estimates 120 countries are now using the Internet for Web espionage operations.

Cyber-attacks on private and government Web sites in Estonia in April and May this year were "just the tip of the iceberg", the report warned.

Estonia said thousands of sites were affected in attacks aimed at crippling infrastructure in a country heavily dependent on the Internet.

As well as communications, everything from stock orders, inventory checks, banking and salary payments are all made electronically the world over.

Ian Grayson suggests in his post "Email – what if the flow just stopped?", that we should not be relying souly upon digital records but also keep some back up methods of the traditional and papery kind, in the event that anything drastic should happen. At least business will be able to continue in some manner rather than completely grind to a halt.