Almost one-fifth of Irish businesses would pay a ransom of up to €50,000 to cyber criminals, a survey has found. The survey by IT firm DataSolutions found almost a third of senior IT professionals didn’t think their companies were equipped to deal with emerging cybersecurity threats.

Cyber crime insurers largely avoided costly claims from the recent attacks that hit businesses around the globe but the next global virus could change that, a leading global insurer has warned.

Update 8:11pm: Shipping group Maersk has been affected by the ongoing global cyber attack as its computer systems failed across multiple regions, including Ireland and the UK.