Domestic companies are unprepared to deal with information technology related frauds despite substantial awareness of the same, Ernst & Young India said in its survey.

Nearly 85 per cent of the respondents surveyed said their firm have more than 50 per cent of their data in electronic format, while more than one-fourth revealed that their company experienced technology related fraud incidents.

These incidents were mainly related to intellectual property theft, theft of personal identifiable information, online banking or trading frauds, as well as malwares and phishing attacks, the survey titled 'Technology frauds: A changing world' said.

The survey was conducted by the Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) team of E&Y to measure the understanding of IT threats and the preparedness of companies to counter the new threats of a paperless world.

"As organisations digitise making way for globalisation, we see an underlying threat of all information owned by a company being accessible for misuse. Timely response and right approach to a technology-led fraud can prevent it from snowballing into a major crisis," E&Y India partner and national leader for fraud investigations and dispute services Arpinder Singh said.

The report says while domestic companies are aware of the risks and potential challenges they face in the digital world, there appears to be a considerable lack of preparedness to counter an incident.

As many as 60 per centcompanies surveyed said their companies preferred an in-house team for conducting probe over any specialist agency -- either government or private.

Interestingly, even as 63 per centrespondents claimed that their in-house infotech team was qualified to perform the probe, only nine per cent could provide details of requisite qualifications.

"In any investigation, it is imperative to understand the modus operandi of the fraud, the extent of damage, and then take a punitive action against the fraud perpetrator.

"These requirements make any investigation, a highly specialised process, which requires forensic tools, technology and people to cull data in a secure environment, so as to maintain confidentiality of the information," Singh said.