Experts call for action to combat hacking

Following a series of high-profile hacks, the FBI is set to outline threats facing U.S. cyber space.

Thursday's (February 28) briefing in San Francisco comes amid a number of recent attacks to businesses.

Burger King and Jeep had Twitter accounts hit, while the New York Times says a Chinese military unit hacked its computers.

Paul Viollis from Risk Control Strategies says cyber criminals are getting smarter - and it's time for companies to start fighting back.

SOUNDBITE: (English) PAUL VIOLLIS, CEO, RISK CONTROL STRATEGIES INC. SAYING:

"It's almost like building, the best analogy I can give you is, a home alarm system that only alarms when someone is in your house. That's great, but that's not helping me. We want to be notified when they are outside on the property. Here it's the same thing."

China is one area where some experts believe attacks are becoming more aggressive.

Eurasia's Ian Bremmer says American companies face an online war to protect their private information.

SOUNDBITE: (English) IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT OF EURASIA GROUP, SAYING:

"We are now entering an environment where the world's largest economy will be a country that is principle threat in terms of cyber security and will be a country where the most important economic actor is the state and that means that American corporations that want to do business and compete in China will need to change the way they think."

Officials say hacking is driving a new wave of security experts hoping to tackle the threat.

They say big firms will need to work together with competitors to ensure survival.