Meanwhile, Mr Gibson has urged businesses across the region to avoid compromising their data security by taking a few simple steps.

At the dawn of the internet age, computer hacking was largely the work of young tech-wizards holed up in their bedrooms looking to bring down huge corporations.

However, it is now the work of criminal organisations who send out thousands of spam emails automatically and indiscriminately to anyone in their targeted radius.

These can allow the hackers to open a back door into your computer network, stealing your data and bandwidth and possibly spreading viruses into your system.

According to Mr Gibson, the key to preventing such attacks is to update software on a regular basis. He said: “In many cases smaller companies are struggling to service in this economic climate, (online security) is not the first thought they have but it shouldn’t be the last.

“Organised criminals pay the spammers to send out the autoscripts to steal your bandwidth. Don’t think you won’t be targeted.”

Mr Gibson spent 20 years at the FBI where he specialised in investigating economic espionage, complex money laundering, fraud schemes and intellectual property theft.

He went on to serve at the US embassy in London.