Cyber criminals winning online security war

This is the blunt assessment of San Francisco-based internet security watcher and author Joseph Menn.

Mr Menn said the internet was never designed for sensitive banking transactions, and cyber criminals were winning the war against online security.

The only glimmer of hope was that people were becoming more aware of the risks involved with the internet - which he described as a "loaded gun" - but he said users had to be even more savvy to avoid becoming a cyber crime victim.

Mr Menn said when he interviewed the former head of the US Department of Justice's Cyber Crime Unit, she said that half of all credit cards already were in the hands of criminals.

"And if your credit card details weren't in criminals' hands it was only because they hadn't got around to it yet," he said yesterday, before addressing the Internet Industry Association in Sydney. "That's a big problem."

Mr Menn said he believed that the internet had inherent structural flaws.

These weaknesses made it extremely difficult to make the network secure.

"In my view, it is awfully late to be talking about bolting security on to the current system," he said.

"It's a mess - it's the most open network in the history of the universe and we are defending it against some of the worst and best financed criminal groups.

"And we are losing."