Despite the ongoing efforts of all banks and regulators to thwart online identity theft, customers start avoiding such transactions and overall tend to keep away from exchanging any personal information with the banks as network security is becoming a bigger issue everyday.

At an identity theft forum in New York on Tuesday, security experts discussed with bank representatives and confirmed that appropriate measures have been taken in order to stop online criminals. However, this proves more often that, in spite of these efforts, hackers still manage to penetrate the network and fool customers into providing personal information.

Even if users are savvy enough to follow every right procedure in the book and, in theory, avoid being hacked, somehow attackers seem to always be one step ahead and find a way to break into users' systems. "Consumers can do everything right -- not give out passwords or financial information -- and still become victims", said Susanna Montezemolo, a policy analyst at Consumers Union, in an interview.

Data from an October survey by Internet security company Entrust Inc. presented at the forum shows that 18 percent of Americans who have been using online banking services now do so less, or not at all, because of security concerns.