After it became known that the United States has been spying on everyone in the world, it looks like the country feels the need to warn the world that the Russians are doing the same thing. One of the American cyber security companies said that it has collected evidence that the Russian government spied on American, European and Asian companies.

This is the first time Russia has been linked to cyber attacks for alleged economic gains. Maybe they finally run out of money with their Sochi Olympics? Cybersecurity experts made a statement that the victims of Russian spying included energy and technology companies, some of which have lost valuable intellectual property. The experts claimed that the cyber attacks have been motivated by the Russian government’s interest in helping domestic industries in key areas of national importance.

Actually, governments have been electronically spying on each other for over three decades under surveillance programs conducted by almost every nation. But it is only in the last ten years that some countries have started using online espionage for gaining information to help promote their own economic interests.

The US cyber security firm pointed out that the snooping has been carried out by Russian group of hackers known as “Energetic Bear” for 2 years already. The experts think that it is the Russian government behind the campaign, due to some technical indicators and analysis of the targets chosen and the information stolen. They admitted that the Russians copied the Chinese play book, as cyber espionage is very lucrative for economic benefit to a country.