"It's an issue that we don't think is getting enough attention," Art Coviello, president of RSA Security Inc., told a press conference at the 10th annual security conference organized by his company.

Howard Schmidt, the White House cyber security adviser who is working with the technology industry to improve security, told the news conference that work to date had been strong on new ideas to improve security, but slow to execute.

"We've had a lot of discussion over the role of the private sector," Schmidt said, adding, "we're definitely a work in progress."

Despite repeated warnings of rogue nations preparing for cyber-attacks that could cripple vital computer-run U.S. infrastructure, no such attacks are known to have occurred to date.

"I think we're more concerned with weapons of mass destruction," said Russ Cooper, of the research and security services company TruSecure, based in Herndon, Virginia.

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