"The problem is that the technology is moving so fast," he said. "It's easy to say, it's harder to do."

Also speaking at the summit, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell urged cybersecurity vendors to secure data but not lock it down so tightly that it is useless. The U.S., in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, locked down airplane travel and foreign visas so tightly that many foreign students were discouraged from coming to U.S. universities, he said.

With IT security, organizations still need to use data. Cybersecurity needs to serve organizations' operational needs, he said.

"We need to do security in a reasonable way," Powell said.