Nearly 50 NHS trusts were affected by the "WannaCry" ransomware attacks at the weekend where data was stolen and locked down, and computer users were told to pay money in return for their files.
Tayo Dada, a Christian and ex-hacker who now runs Managed IT Services, told Premier: "There is definitely a massive, exponential rise in the number of hacking attacks... but, unfortunately, people are not taking the proactive steps in order to ensure they are being a lot more suspicious about what files they're opening and how they secure their networks.
Mr Dada's comments come after technology giant Microsoft's most senior lawyer urged goverments to treat the global cyber attack as a "wake up".
Writing in blog, Brad Smith said: "An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen."
Mr Smith accused US intelligence agencies the CIA and the National Security Agency of "stockpiling" information about softwave weakspots which could then be exploited by criminals.
Cyber security expert Ollie Taylor told Premier cyber attacks have become more sophisticated, explaining: "It's now possible to take advantage of existing connectivity between computers in business networks and, in this case, it's relating to file-sharing technology that's built into the operating system.
"Because it is, essentially, asking for quite a low amount of money compared to what many people would vale their data at, many people are very willing to pay $300 or $400 to get their data back."
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Prime Minister down played suggestions that NHS computers were particularly at risk of the WannaCry attack because many use WindowsXP, an older operating system.
They said: "This is an international cyber crime, committed on an unprecedented scale. The Home Secretary has the lead on responding to crime and cyber crime and it is quite right that she should be taking the lead.
"The Health Secretary has been working round the clock on co-ordinating the NHS response to this, which has been a hugely impressive response."
Home Secretary Amber Rudd is due to chair a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee on Whitehall at 5pm on Monday.
Click here to listen to Premier's Lisa Mainwaring speaking with cyber security expert Ollie Taylor:
Click here to listen to Premier's Lisa Mainwaring speaking with ex-hacker Tayo Dada: