Small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide are set to cross US $11.4 billion on beefing up their IT security and infrastructure this year in a bid to thwart increasing electronic threats. This spending trend will increase at double digit rates annually over the next several years, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. These results were based on surveys of SMBs conducted by AMI in over 20 countries representing key developed and emerging markets.