Of all the breaches created by the explosion in corporate cyber-security threats, the biggest one may be the "consequences gap"-the growing chasm between the fast-accumulating damage wreaked by online invasions of business data and CEOs' frustrating impotence to stop them.

Just ask Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who created a bleak picture in May as he and the company reeled from cyber-sabotage against the PlayStation game network. Analysts believe this cost Sony about $1bn in tangible damages and an incalculable toll in lost customer goodwill, tarnished brand equity and sleepless nights for the corporate brain trust.

"It's not a brave new world; it's a bad new world," Stringer told The Wall Street Journal, with the apocalyptic mien of a CEO who couldn't bridge the yawning cyber-sabotage consequences gap. "It's the beginning, unfortunately, of the shape of things to come."

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