Speaking at the Enterprise Ventures 2006 (http://enterpriseventures.dowjones.com/) conference on Thursday morning, Mark Bregman, senior vice president and chief evangelist at Symantec, noted a growing hesitance on the part of some consumers and businesses to conduct business on the Internet.

A new wave is emerging in which consumers rather than enterprises are driving the Web, but this could be jeopardized by fears about security, Bregman said.

"If that fear builds up too much, this could disrupt that transition," he said.

Safety concerns have arisen not only for applications such as Internet banking but also for social interaction, with identity verification an issue, Bregman added.

"One of the big areas we're focused on is: How do you solve that identity problem?"