Too many companies, whether they’re in the IT field or something completely unrelated like a supermarket chain, don’t pay attention to this until its too late. Given that we’re living in an age when unscrupulous individuals can extract literally millions of customer records with a few keystrokes — and that such a breach can easily bring down small businesses and even much larger organizations through legal bills and fines, security needs to be part of every business plan.

There are some interesting examples of the consequences of businesses neglecting security in these articles here
and here

I remember being skeptical that I would be accepted, and putting so little effort into my application that my proposal was essentially “I am a computer programmer. Give me $3000 and I will buy a new laptop and attempt to find clients.”

This completely abstract notion landed 16 year old Pete a brand new 486DX/100 (w/4 megs ram! couldn’t afford the $1200 16 meg module) and I proceeded to… well, I didn’t do anything.

I didn’t hear from the bank again, and I actually thought my grandmother had paid off my loan until 12 years later, I suddenly got a call from some collections officer that I had to pay immediately or I’d have a lien placed against me.

I told her that I didn’t have $3000 handy, and instead of arguing, she suggested that if I paid $600 immediately, she would cut me a deal. (I had satisfied myself that I wasn’t being scammed.)

And so it came to pass! I guess merely mentioning programming doesn’t cut it, anymore.