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The call, by virus software firm Sophos, follows the jailing of a team of private investigators who used spyware to steal information on behalf of legitimate companies.

Commercial information 

According to media reports, four members of the Israeli Modi'in Ezrahi private investigation firm have been sentenced after they were found guilty of using a Trojan horse to steal commercial information.

The Trojan horse was said to have been used by a number of different private investigation firms to spy on the Rani Rahav PR agency - whose clients include Israel's second biggest mobile phone operator, Partner Communications -, and the HOT cable television group. Another alleged victim was Champion Motors, who import Audi and Volkswagen motor vehicles.

Asaf Zlotovsky, a manager at the Modi'in Ezrahi detective firm, was given a 19 month jail sentence. Two other employees, Haim Zissman and Ron Barhoum, were sent to prison for 18 and nine months respectively.

The firm's former CEO, Yitzhak Rett, escaped a jail sentence after admitting the allegations under a plea bargain. He has been fined 250,000 Israeli Shekels (£36,000) and will face 10 months on parole.

Bad publicity 

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says that it is understandable that firms would want information on what their business rivals are planning to do, and try to seek a competitive advantage over them.

He adds, however, that it is not acceptable to hire firms that will use illegal methods, such as computer spyware, to gather that information.

"Firms need to be very careful about the third parties they hire to help them grow their business, and seek assurances that their partners will not be behaving unethically or illegally. If they do not, the consequences could not only be a swathe of bad publicity but also a spell in prison," Cluley warns.

London-based Michael Haephrati, who honed his computer skills during three years' military service in the Israeli army, developed the spyware Trojan horse, while his wife, Ruth, marketed it to several private investigation firms who bought the code and installed it onto the computers of its clients' rivals.

The Haephratis were fined and sentenced to jail by an Israeli court for their involvement in the case in 2006.

Infected web pages 

"Regular cyber criminals may be attempting to steal your employees' credit card details, but spyware can also be used for corporate espionage designed to steal your business plans and customer databases," explained Cluley.

He warns that firms should be on their guard and have proper defences in place to avoid falling foul of this kind of attack.

Sophos reported an average of more than 15,000 new infected - "hacked" - web pages every day in the first quarter of 2008, three times more than in 2007, and 79 per cent of these were legitimate websites.

High-profile losses of customer details were reported from both US companies Hannaford and Advanced Auto Parts.

In March 2008, it was reported that the credit card numbers of 4.2 million customers had been stolen from the supermarket chain Hannaford Bros using malware installed on servers at the grocery chain’s stores in New England and Florida.

The credit card details were then sent overseas. According to media reports at the time of writing, the Secret Service is continuing its investigations and approximately 1800 fraud cases have already been reported as a result of the incident.

The high profile breach resulted in a letter of apology from Hannaford’s CEO Ron Hodge being placed in every customer’s shopping bag.

Vigilant companies not immune 

March also saw US motoring parts retailer Advance Auto Parts announcing that hackers had gained access to the financial information of 56,000 of its customers, through an attack which affected 14 of its stores worldwide.

Companies remain under pressure to become compliant with new payment card industry (PCI) guidelines.

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