However, the enormous technological growth over the Internet has also influenced the way cyber crimes and fraudsters operate. This has demanded enhancement of security mechanisms and technologies in order to meet the emerging challenges over the Internet.

Avi Rosen, RSA's principal technical consultant for APAC, talks to Pankaj Maru of CyberMedia News about security threats, online frauds and fraudsters, the problems and challenges against cracking down the online crimes and the role of security enterprises to help government agencies. Excerpts:

The development on the Internet front and Web technologies has also influenced the way online frauds and criminal activities occur today. Do you think there's a need to change the existing security platform and technologies?

Security is like a cat-and-mouse game. The security mechanisms which we had two years ago are not aligned with the threats we have today. So security also needs to evolve to combat the threats that evolve over time. Hence, security platforms need to be enhanced and evolved with time to fight the threats.

You know some of the Trojans are very effective in the online banking system, it's because the banking institutions are unaware of the new emerging threats and hence they fail to protect the end users and their identity. In general, the banking institutions need to be more proactive in protecting the end users and their identities.

Eventually, it is the fraudsters who are abusing the brands of banking institutions for stealing information and identities from the end users. These banking institutions needs to be proactive in winning the end users' confidence by educating, alerting them and also in remaining a step ahead of fraudsters.

Is it high time that enterprises offering security solution and anti-virus protections come forward, along with government agencies, to combat fraudsters and cyber crimes that are causing huge losses to world economy and businesses?

Yes, absolutely they should get united with government agencies to fight out this growing menace. In fact, we are closely working with international governments and agencies worldwide.

We work with the local governing bodies in different countries to help them identify and investigate the evolving threats and security problems affecting businesses over the Internet. We provide them tools and technologies to monitor threats such as Trojans, viruses, phishing scams, and also keep close watch on fraudsters and their activities.

On identifying any major threats such as Trojans, we alert them, create awareness and educate them about how to deal with the situation. We do suggest the governments with stringent steps and measures to become more effective against the fraudsters. Also, we wish and hope that other companies like ours, which are in the field of security, will come out and work with different countries to curb down online frauds and Internet crimes.

Today, many countries have cyber and IT laws along with security agencies. Still cyber crimes are increasing. Does it mean these cyber laws and agencies are ineffective to curb the fraudsters and their activities?

It's not that the cyber and IT laws and government agencies of different countries are ineffective to deal with online crimes. The problem for these countries and their governments is - 'how to identifying the culprits of the crimes?'

Identification still remains a very critical issue. The online or Internet environment is invisible and anonymous to track down the culprits. For instance, someone starts a phishing site using proxy network or some hi-tech systems from unknown location and targets Internet users in some third country. So how can such fraudsters be identified and tracked remains a very difficult task.

So I don't think there's any problem with the cyber laws, but the problem is identification of such criminals. For the prosecutions under these laws, the culprit needs to be produced in court and it needs identification of the culprit. These security agencies can curb fake phishing sites or networks and can stop its activities. However, to crack down on the criminals behind such phishing, farming sites or Trojans is a challenge.