Two court rulings are giving hope to small businesses that havepreviously been liable for bank funds lost to hackers, the WallStreet Journal reports. Under state laws, small businessowners, unlike individuals, are responsible for losses incurredwhen their bank accounts were looted by cyberthieves.

But a Boston appeals court recently ruled that Maine's OceanBank was accountable for the $600,000 stolen online from theaccount of Patco Construction Co., a small contracting businessthat didn't even have an IT specialist on staff. Last year, aDetroit judge ruled in favor of a Michigan custom metals shop thatlost $561,399 from its bank account in a phishing scheme.

On average, hackers made 151 attacks per day on organizations inthe first half of 2012, 30% of which targeted small businesses,according to data released by Symantec.