Most people may strive for moral and ethical righteousness. But it's still a scary world, especially when it comes to technology. Laptops and hard-disk drives with valuable and confidential commercial information seem to be stolen every day. Mainframes containing similarly sensitive data are routinely hacked. Certain semiconductor companies are overproducing chips to later sell on the black market. And it's only getting worse.

Viruses, financial fraud, computer theft, and network intrusion cost U.S. businesses $67 billion a year, according to a January 2006 report from the FBI. Likewise, a 2006 survey from the Ponemon Institute, Vontu Inc., and PGP Corp. says the average business loss from unauthorized data access grew 31% to $182 per compromised record. The total cost to each business ranges from less than $1 million to over $22 million, with an average of over $4 million.