"That takes away the pain of remembering the password according to who you are – I think that will be where this ends up finally. Now, there are challenges of privacy," said MasterCard President/CEO Ajay Banga.

In its quest to develop biometrics technology, MasterCard has partnered with the $7.3 billion First Tech FCU of Mountain View, Calif., to develop a service that allows consumers to use a combination of voice, biometrics and retinal scans to authenticate purchases both at the point of sale and remotely.

"If you have enough data and enough predictive analytics, you can do a lot with that," Bangas said.

He explained that MasterCard is working on using analytics and "data anonymization" to create a safety net that weeds out fraudulent transactions.  

Banga appeared on a panel titled, "Improving Cybersecurity Practices at Consumer Oriented Businesses and Organizations," which was moderated by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

2.     Hackers always win.

PayPal President/CEO Dan Schulman said the cyberattacks directed at his company are fast and ferocious. Schulman said the average American company gets hit with 7 million intrusion attempts each year and the number is higher for financial services companies.

"What you are really are trying to do is create this defense and then authentication around credentials, but you know inevitably that somebody will break through," he said during a panel discussion on secure payments.

Schulman said hackers typically use an authorized individual's credentials to enter the system. Schulman said the only way to stop every bit of hacking is to do no transactions, which is obviously not an option. So, to keep data secure, PayPal constantly develops new algorithms to combat cyberattacks.

"What you do is you have very sophisticated algorithms," Schulman said.

3. Cybersecurity compromises privacy.

Nuala O'Connor, president/CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, said consumers expect companies to protect their personal data from the federal government.

"Although we respect the fact that there are national security issues and real threats to this country, the wholesale collection of data into the hands of the federal government is not the solution," she said.

O'Connor argued there are potential solutions to preventing cyberattacks around data encryption.

She said the public should feel safe sharing information on their mobile devices without fear of the government spying on them.

"The argument that well just because I put all my data out there on Facebook doesn't mean I want any privacy; that's not a legitimate argument. I should have the right to engage in a fully engaged digital world without feeling like I should be spied on by my government," she said during a cybersecurity session.

4.     President Obama signed a cybersecurity executive order.

When signing the document on stage at the event, Obama said it would promote further information sharing between the government and the private sector about cyber threats.

"It will encourage more companies and industries to set up organizations – hubs – so you can share information with each other. It will call for a common set of standards, including protections for privacy and civil liberties, so that government can share threat information with these hubs more easily. And it can help make it easier for companies to get the classified cybersecurity threat information that they need to protect their companies," he said.

5.     Apple CEO Tim Cook touted Apple's privacy controls.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told attendees Apple does not sell advertisers any of its users' personal data. And when consumers use Apple Pay, Cook said none of their transactions are stored on their iPhones or on Apple's servers.

"We don't sell advertisers any information from your email content, from your messages or your web browsing history. We don't try to monetize the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. When we ask for your data, it's to provide you better services," Cook said.