As bigger businesses beef up their cyber security, hackers are taking aim at smaller businesses, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in an article from Business Insurance.

Howard A. Schmidt, special assistant to the president and cyber security coordinator for the White House, said cyber crime threatens every aspect of life, Business Insurance reports.

"Information networks are increasingly the backbone of our economy, infrastructure, national defense and personal well-being," Schmidt said during last week's event. "Unique to cyber risk, there is not shortage of threat actors — whether they be local or international criminals or nation states."

As large businesses and the U.S. government divert more resources to defend against cyber crime, small and midsize businesses will be targeted, Schmidt said. 

“As big businesses get better at protecting their assets, criminals are not going to give up; they are just going to look for the next set of victims,” he said. “So small and medium-sized businesses and state and local governments are now on the front lines of this even more than some of the large enterprises.”

Business Insurance reports that although cyber crime insurance policies have been around for more than a decade, they are becoming more popular.

The Council also suggests that along with a careful cyber security plan and insurance, all employees should be trained in cyber security basics, as even one employee who opens a phishing scam email can jeopardize the whole protocol.