Experts are pleading with businesses to be vigilant in handling the threat of cyber crime following a breach of the Federal Parliaments computer network and a warning from one of Australia’s most senior military figures.

Security in Depth chief executive Michael Connory says on average, it takes companies 8 months to discover they’ve been hacked, and the most common method is through email.

The most common cyber attacks are in health and finance, which impacts organisations who lose the trust of their customers.