Russia spied on foreign energy companies, claims US security firm

A US cyber security firm has reportedly claimed that the Russian government has allegedly snooped on hundreds of American, European and Asian companies.

The firm, CrowdStrike, has revealed that it has evidence that victims of the previously unreported cyber espionage campaign include energy and technology firms, some of which have lost valuable intellectual property.

According to Mashable, hackers with ties in Russia have been penetrating the networks of the companies as part of a campaign dubbed, 'Energetic Bear', targeting companies in more than 23 countries in Europe, the United States and Asia.

Usually hackers based out of China are suspected to be involved in hack attacks stealing intellectual property for an economic advantage, but this is the first time Russia has been name as the culprit in economic spying.

CrowdStrike's vice president of intelligence, Adam Meyers said that this was really one of the first evident cases of Russian activity they have seen in a long time, referring to cyber espionage.

Co-founder and CTO of CrowdStrike, Dmitri Alperovitch, explained that the hackers used sophisticated techniques and injected spyware into a series of websites they expected the victims to visit, an attack commonly referred to as strategic web compromise or watering hole, the report added.