The second annual barometer survey from Panda Security claims to show that 14% of UK companies have out -of-date security systems, compared to 4% as a European average.
13% of UK companies, meanwhile, have no security system in place – compared to 11% as a European average.
Interestingly, the study found that 26% of UK users employ free IT security software, compared to 14% in Europe.
Against this backdrop, Panda reports that 46% of UK SMBs have suffered infections over the last year, up from 38% in the first report 12 months ago.
Overall, Panda says that companies claim to have maintained a similar investment in security as last year, although 15% of UK respondents claimed that their investment had significantly increased – against a European average of just 5% claiming to have a much higher security budget.
Unfortunately, the research also found that security training for employees continues to be low, with 46% of UK companies not receiving any basic IT security training about threat avoidance.
Luis Corrons, Panda's technical director, said the barometer shows there is still a long way to go in educating people about the importance of having comprehensive security on their desktop.
"The fact that 96% of people have AV systems installed but 46% still experienced an Internet borne infection shows that AV alone is not sufficient to protect companies from today's more sophisticated threats", he said.
"The other alarming fact is the high percentage of users who are failing to update their security systems. It's extremely important to keep all security systems up to date to ensure that known vulnerabilities are properly patched", he added.
According to Corrons, users that don't apply the security fixes released by manufacturers run the risk of being targeted by cyber criminals, as these security holes can be used to infect or infiltrate systems.