While I wound up not paying the charges the thieves made, it took months of worry and stress to straighten it all out. Just about any corporation will tell you that its computers are secure. But time and again, we've seen they are not, as outsiders and insiders looted money, credit card numbers and competitive secrets. There are good reasons why corporations scrimp on computer security. First, there's a conflict between good security and ease of use.
Good security increases the complexity.
Resolving that conflict means the head of computer security must have equal company clout with the guy in charge of building the system. Second, computer security is expensive. Companies with good security spend 3 percent to 5 percent of their information technology budget on the problem. If a company has never had a big loss because of an intrusion, then it may think it's never going to happen. Of course, when the horse gets stolen, we all know what happens to the barn door.