The biggest cyber threat to businesses attempting to cause data mayhem comes from Russia, China and North Korea and it's not a case of 'if but when,' bosses have been warned.

And experts have underlined that message warning that businesses need to ensure their systems are more robust than their competitors – otherwise they could suffer expensive breaches.

That was the tough message from two former soldiers who have now started fighting a different battle against a global enemy deliberately targeting businesses in order to create chaos, disrupt an economy and basically spread misery and cause a huge financial loss at the touch of a button.

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Cyber experts former army officer Peter Cubbin and Director of Jungo Paul Maskall believe it is impossible to avoid being targeted – the difference is how companies prepare.

Mr Cubbin boasts more than 30 years' experience in cyber and electronic warfare and runs his own consultancy while Mr Maskall is also a consultant and a former cyber crime security advisor for Norfolk police.

'You will be hit, you will have an incident and it will have an impact on your business,' said Mr Cubbin, from Norwich-based cyber resilience consultancy, Cyberfen. He said gangs targeting firms ranged from opportunists trying to create disorder, often involving criminal gangs, those looking to cause industrial espionage and hurt an economy to hackers doing it to bring attention to a political cause.

Mr Cubbin added that the big threat comes from hostile nations and businesses need to assume they will be targeted: 'You need to be better defended than the guy next to you.'

Mr Maskall said many people did not attach enough importance to information freely given away.

'We are so conditioned to giving away data, we place no emotional attachment on it, no emotional value,' he said. He used an example of how many people avoided canvassers in the street with a clipboard because of the worry of giving away information, yet were happy to use social media, which posed a substantially greater risk.

The talk was held at the Debut restaurant at Norwich City College which hopes to offer a new cyber security apprenticeship. 1.0.0.20