This is not a joke.. Eugene Kaspersky himself, Chairman and CEO of the leading anti-virus software company, said the hackers had attempted to steal information about his firm and its clients. The company has discovered an advanced attack on its own internal networks. Eugene Kaspersky desribed it as complex and stealthy - it exploited several zero-day vulnerabilities and he confidently said that there was a nation state behind it.

The 'Duqu 2.0' malicious framework, as was named by the company, required a "colossal" cost of developing and maintaining, Kaspersky said.

"It looks like the people behind Duqu 2.0 were fully confident it would be impossible to have their clandestine activity exposed; however, we did manage to detect it, " he added.

Kaspersky said that the attackers were interested in learning about the company's technologies, particularly its Secure Operating System, Kaspersky Fraud Prevention, Kaspersky Security Network, Anti-APT solution, and services.

The security company also found that the group behind Duqu 2.0 also spied on several prominent targets, including participants in the international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and in the 70th anniversary event of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Kaspersky has already added the detection of Duqu 2.0 to its products.

"Spying on cybersecurity companies is a very dangerous tendency," said the Eugene Kaspersky."The only way to protect the world is to have law enforcement agencies and security companies fighting such attacks openly."We will always report attacks regardless of their origin."