A top U.S. official called today for an accelerated cross-border campaign to combat cybercriminals, whose technical savvy is undermining the world’s ability to deal with online threats, Reuters reported.

“Most countries don’t even have a legal framework that really governs cyber,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said in Vienna. “It is such a new phenomenon in that regard, so the legal systems – both domestic and international – have not kept pace with the technological advances we have seen.”

Recent high-profile cyber attacks, which have targeted the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Senate, as well as companies such as Citigroup Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp., have fueled concerns about the security of government and corporate computer networks.

The attacks have also called into question the ability of law enforcement to track down computer hackers.

“We are all scrambling, but we are scrambling with some of the best minds in the world, and we are confident that from a technological point of view we are going to get to a satisfactory resolution of some of these difficult problems,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano told reporters that a collaborative, accelerated effort must be hammered out to help nations and companies cope with cyber threats.

“Right now, there needs to be some sort of international legal framework to address those, and that does not yet exist,” she said.