HEIT, one of the many players in the crowded computer-information security business, did something that few of its rivals have accomplished: It went from generating less than $500,000 in revenue to nearly $18 million in only seven years.

How did the company experience such explosive growth? "Work hard," laughs Dan Holt, general manager for HEIT, which stands for Holt Edington Information Technology, though the company uses only the acronym.

Now one of the largest providers of computer security services in the so-called cloud, HEIT handles the data of nearly 600 banks nationwide and protects their networks from intruders.

The company also stores some banks' data on its servers, while other banks store their own information. Many of its bank and credit union customers employ few information technology staffers and so rely on HEIT to get bigger jobs done.

HEIT staffers resolve security breaches every day, Holt said.

They once stopped attacks on a bank coming from China, Romania and the United States. Hackers routed traffic from the bank's website to another website that they created. HEIT stopped the attacks and eliminated the phony site.

It's a common occurrence, the sort