Contineo Technologies Inc., a Spokane technology company, has opened an office in Fort Worth, Texas, in response to what it sees as a growth opportunity in that region of the U.S.

The nine-year-old company, which employs 13 people here, specializes in data security and compliance auditing, business and emergency-preparedness consulting, and information-technology services. It has clients in 20 states, most of which are in the finance, health-care, insurance, law, technology, and real estate sectors. The majority of its customers are mid-sized banking institutions, says Craig Sanders, Contineo's president and CEO.

Sanders says the company opened its Fort Worth office partly because about 30 percent of Contineo's sales last year came from customers in Texas. The company is leasing about 200 square feet of space there, and has hired one full-time manager. Plans call for Contineo possibly to hire up to three more people for the office in the next 12 months, he says.

"We have had robust inquiries in all segments of our services from Texas and the surrounding states," Sanders said in a news release. "Opening a field office in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and coordinating our efforts to further expand in that region was a strategic growth decision."

He says a key part of Contineo's recent sales growth has come in data security, primarily due to heightened awareness in the past few years of the need to protect sensitive data. Contineo assesses its clients' networks and software-hosting application systems to determine the adequacy of their security controls and to identify potential security deficiencies.

"Every 60 seconds expert hackers break into a corporate network to steal information or corrupt the network with malicious programs," he says. The company's "vulnerability and assessment and penetration testing services identify the vulnerable entry points on clients' networks and put the security measures in place to prevent intrusions, track and stop hacker activity."

In Spokane, the company leases about 3,300 square feet of space at 159 S. Lincoln.