Which companies are hackers targeting? "The main focus of hackers seeking PID is mid-sized companies," says Paul Viollis, CEO of Risk Control Strategies, a security and investigative firm. Why? "They're perceived as the path of least resistance." Mid-sized organizations with up to 100 employees and $100m a year in revenue "lack the security budgets of their big-business peers," explains Tim Matthews, director of product marketing at Symantec, a leading security systems provider.
A recent Symantec survey of more than 2,000 small and mid-sized enterprises found that 73 percent had been victimized by cyber attacks, and the cost cannot be measured by dollars alone. "There's always the risk of customers no longer conducting business with you," Matthews says. "Once your reputation is tarnished, shutting down becomes a very real possibility."
