Would you say the cost of reputable, web-based software vendors should be part of the 5 to 15% allocation experts suggest should come out of the budget for security costs?

Things like penetration testing and vulnerability assessments are definitely part of that equation. You could spend 100% of your budget just trying to secure your infrastructure, and that's probably not enough. Really, you're trying to put the money in the right places to get the biggest bang for your buck. And that's how you're going to sell it to the executives.

Do you believe the problems facing companies today will ever go away, or will we at least see a decline in threats effecting organizations?

It's a constant game of cat-and-mouse. They're getting more and more sophisticated and it's our job as the good guys to stay in lockstep and be just as sharp. Companies are trying to operate more efficiently. They're trying to be more paperless. They're trying to put information on the internet. They're trying to make things quicker and more available to their their customers. That means data is going online and there's risk associated with that. So unfortunately, I don't think it's going away. If you are a security practitioner, it's job security for you. Just stay on top of it. It's going to get worse, and I don't mean to scare anyone, but it is what it is.