Security awareness a commonplace concern

A survey of information security concerns at 455 US SMBs (small to medium sized businesses with 5 to 1,000 employees) is mostly same old same old but one statistic caught my eye (see graph above). Three-quarters of those surveyed believe that security awareness would help to improve the level of security in their company. Most SMBs are not that bothered about their security budget or how many security people they have.

"Employees are not the only people who need to be ‘educated’. One in four IT executives want senior management to have a better understanding of security issues as this could have a bearing on the overall level of network security and, possibly, the range of security measures that could be implemented."

Why is it, I wonder, that security awareness is in such high demand? It's great for our business, of course, but still I'm curious as to the attraction. Is it that security awareness is just too difficult for most people? Or is it just this month's fad (I sincerely hope not!)?

With NoticeBored Classic starting at just US$2300 for organizations with less than 500 employees, security awareness is surely within reach of even the smallest SMBs.