More than three-quarters of businesses say the prospect of unplanned IT outages keeps them up at night, making this their top concern in 2014.

Research by the Business Continuity Institute and BSI also shows that 73 per cent of businesses worry about the chance of a cyber-attack or other form of data breach.

Just under two-thirds of respondents said they worried about the influence of social media and potential damage to their reputations.

Despite widespread disruption to businesses based in flooded areas, fear relating to adverse weather conditions was fourth on the list with 57 per cent referencing the problem.

The top ten threats to business continuity were found to be:

1. Unplanned IT and telecom outages

2. Cyber attack

3. Data breach

4. Adverse weather

5. Interruption to utility supply

6. Fire

7. Security incident

8. Health & Safety incident

9. Act of terrorism

10. New laws or regulations

“Developing the resilience of networks, services and business critical information must be an integral part of an organisation’s wider business resilience strategy,” said Howard Kerr, chief executive of BSI.

“By putting in place a framework based on risk standards, you will be able to identify, prioritise and manage the range of threats to your business more effectively and keep your stakeholders reassured.”