Small businesses are concerned about cyber crime for two reasons. First, their own businesses can be compromised by such events, possibly leading to financial losses and even temporary business shutdowns. Second, private information on their customers can be compromised, which can lead to, at worst, lawsuits by those customers, and, at best, loss of business from those customers.

Ponemon Institute (www.ponemon.org) reported in its "2014 Cost of Data Breach: Global Analysis" report that 43 percent of firms in the U.S. had experienced a data breach in the past year. Retail breaches, in particular, had grown in size and virulence over the previous year.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (www.pwc.com) survey, global cyber security incidents increased 48 percent, to 42.8 million this year, and the average loss for a large company rose from $3.9 million in 2013 to $5.9 million this year.

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