That’s the headline in a Wall Street Journal article this past Thursday. The Journal went on to say:

“Hackers are expanding their sites beyond multinationals to include any business that stores data in electronic form. Small companies, which are making the leap to computerized systems and digital records, have now become hackers’ main target….In 2010 (the government) responded to a combined 761 data breaches, up from 141 in 2009. Of those, 482 or 63% were at companies with 100 employees or fewer.”

Local security experts have been raising the red flag for several years now, but the message is often poorly received because of the cost of beefed up digital security, often seen as unproductive overhead during a challenging economic recovery. It’s like fire insurance — the only thing more expensive than paying the premiums is the cost of a loss not covered by insurance.

This profit protection tip is brought to you by Your CFO for Rent.

As always, your comments and feedback are welcome.