Companies ranging from IT developers to defense companies to Formula One teams also complain of attacks that go after proprietary information.

Brenner called the Aurora attacks "heavy handed use of state espionage" to steal information of military political or industrial value.

A March 28 study from McAfee and government consulting company DAIC called corporate intellectual property "the latest cybercrime currency."

"Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from physical assets to data driven properties, such as trade secrets or product planning documents," in the report.

The change in target means corporate security has to change, too according to Scott Aken, vice president for .