US-based private equity-backed cybersecurity startup CrowdStrike said it had collected evidence to prove that the Russian government conducted cyber espionage campaigns on hundreds of companies in America, Europe and Asia, Reuters reported. This marked the first instance that Moscow has been implicated in hacking attacks for supposedly economic instead of political gains, the report said.

CrowdStrike said the hacking attacks which were not reported before was done on energy and technology companies. Some of these firms lost important intellectual property during these campaigns, the report said.

Because of confidentiality agreements concerning the investigation, CrowdStrike did not provide details of the losses nor did it give the names of the companies that were the subject of the attacks, the report said.

CrowdStrike Chief Technology Officer Dmitri Alperovitch told Reuters, "These attacks appear to have been motivated by the Russian government's interest in helping its industry maintain competitiveness in key areas of national importance."

In the past, cybersecurity researchers have said that the government of China conducted cyber espionage attacks to different corporations. However, Alperovitch said this is the first incident that involved the Russian government for hacking attacks on companies.

Alperovitch revealed that CrowdStrike has been monitoring the activities of "Energetic Bear," the name it gave to a Russian group orchestrating the attack. Based on technical indicators and analysis of the selected targets and stolen information, Crowdstrike believes that the campaign is backed by the Russian government.

He said that they are very confident about their findings. The CrowdStrike report said that European energy companies, defense contractors, technology companies and government agencies were also among the targets of the attack. Healthcare providers in the US and manufacturing and construction companies based in the US, Europe and the Middle East were also among the victims of the attack.

Founded by Alperovitch and former McAffee CTO George Kurtz, CrowdStrike was able to raise $30 million for its Series B round in September last year. The round was led by Accel Venture Partners and participated in by founding investor Warburg Pincus, a TechCrunch report said.