Washington: More than 75 percent of bank websites were flawed and could expose customers to cyber thieves eyeing their money or their identity, according to a survey by University of Michigan.

Atul Prakash, an electrical engineering professor and doctoral students Laura Falk and Kevin Borders based their findings on an in-depth study of websites of 214 financial institutions in 2006.

These design flaws stem from the flow and the layout of these websites. They include placing login boxes and contact information on insecure web pages as well as failing to keep users on the site they initially visited.

"To our surprise, design flaws that could compromise security were widespread and included some of the largest banks in the country," Prakash said.

"Our focus was on users who try to be careful, but unfortunately some bank sites make it hard for customers to make the right security decisions when doing online banking."

Prakash said some banks may have taken steps to resolve these problems since this data was gathered, but overall he still sees much need for improvement.