Otari's run-in with hackers may be an extreme case, but its experience underscores a common plight of business: total ignorance of telecom costs.

FORBES: Dialing for Dollars

Such claims prey on reader ignorance of standard telecom business models.

FORBES: Why Communities Should Decide What Telecom Networks They Have

Sadly like many things today, the "one size fits all" approach often pushed by academic pundits in their ignorance of day-to-day business activities completely ignores the complexities of competing working requirements.

BBC: The pleasures and perils of the open-plan office

Despite his savvy business acumen, Ebbers always professed ignorance of the details of corporate finance.

BBC: Profile: Bernie Ebbers

Bang went the virtual empires founded on ignorance, the businesses built on one-paragraph business plans, the supplies of bubbly without profits to celebrate.

BBC: The virtual business got real

Whether Ms Jowell is guilty of something that requires her resignation depends on whether her claim that she was ignorant of the details of her husband's complicated business dealings is believable and on whether ignorance is an adequate defence.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot