UK IT professionals are more concerned about internal system failures than hacker attacks, according to new research.

The study by training company Firebrand Training asked 601 UK IT workers to rank their greatest concerns.

System failure ranked the highest with 63 per cent of those questioned more concerned about interrupted IT services than the 24 per cent who ranked external threats as their key worry.

Technology issues rate far higher than human error or breaches in security from employees.

Almost half of those questioned said they did not worry about security threats from their company’s staff.

The research indicates a trend towards external security issues taking a back seat to day-to-day operational concerns, said Firebrand Training chief executive Robert Chapman.

"The fact that IT staff are pushing protection against external threats to the bottom of the pile is concerning," he said.

“Security must be higher up the priority list for IT because a security breach, whether by a hacker or a disgruntled employee could be far more damaging in the long run than a few hours’ downtime."