Cyber security experts said the discovery publicly demonstrates what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years.

"This is one of many, many campaigns that happen all the time and never make it into the public domain," said Alexander Klimburg, a cyber security expert at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs.

Eoin Treacy's view Cyber defensive and particularly offensive security remains a growth sector. However, while there are a number of companies involved in such activities they are highly dependent on government funding and have tended to underperform other portions of the security sector.