Businesses have been opened up to personal injury risks by the lack of national boundaries in cyberspace, Safeonline has warned.
Stuart McMillan, European vice president of the digital risk insurance specialist, said UK companies were not properly informed about the risks they took when they published information online.
"Businesses have very little control over who or where their materials are read," McMillan said.
He said companies could be hit by defamation actions for content sent by an employee in an email or held on a company website, invasion of privacy claims where private facts are revealed online and unlawful use accusations when logos or images are used without the owner's permission.
"Triggers for these types of claims include simple employee error, security breaches or hacking and computer viruses," he said.
"Over recent years there have been a number of very high-profile examples which have resulted in significant financial loss for the companies involved."
McMillan said companies needed to reduce the risks by using basic risk management, such as employee email and internet guidelines, firewalls and anti-virus software.
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