A survey has found a surge in fraud hit major companies in Australia and New Zealand during the global financial crisis.

Accounting firm KPMG's latest fraud and misconduct survey shows the average cost of fraud to each organisation surveyed doubled from $1.5 million in 2008 to $3 million in 2010.

External attackers were mainly responsible for fleecing financial institutions, while employees were largely behind fraudulent activity in other sectors.

Partner in charge at KPMG Forensic Gary Gill says the results should be a wake-up call for all Australian businesses.

"Realise that it's people that are inside your organisation - often the most trusted employees you might think are being conscientious, because they're working late at night, because they're on weekends, when in fact they might be ripping you off," he said.

Mr Gill says it is important businesses have secure internal controls to prevent and detect fraud.

He says businesses should be aware that most of the fraud is preventable.

"When it comes to detection [there are] two main things - having a whistleblower in place and then secondly using electronic information within the organisation to try to flesh out potential frauds before they become a big problem," he said.