According to the company, the attack began in October 2016, and given the magnitude of the attack is likely to have been funded by a state.

Spying appeared to be the work of several groups, but the tactics and techniques used suggest that the groups were operating with “similar goals or under the same sponsor,” according to the report that Symantec released last July.

The number of virus-e-mail that spies is at its highest point.

A spokesman for Symantec declined to comment publicly on malware analysis and investigations. In addition, he did not identify the likely sponsor of the attack.

However, Symantec said that regional security interests in South Asia are likely to be endangered by malware.

The company discovered that the attackers installed the malware using lures, which disguised documents related to security issues in South Asia.

The program that infected the computers of security institutions in Pakistan and India, allows spies to download files, record which keys are oppressed, steal personal data and take screenshots.

In response to frequent cyber security incidents, India set up in February a center to help businesses and individuals detect and eliminate malware. The center is operated by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In).

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Gulshan Rai, the general manager of CERT-In, declined to comment specifically on the attack quoted in the Symantec report, but added: “We did a quick action when we discovered a (malware) last October after a group in Singapore alerted “.

Meanwhile, a senior official with the Pakistani Federal Bureau of Investigation, who asked not to be named, said he had received no reports of malware incidents from IT departments.