As most will know, the Canadian government has made huge investments in Bombardier, Inc. The success or failure of Bombardier as a going financial concern is currently dependent on its aircraft division, which is building a new commercial jet. Bombardier's long-time competitor in this sector is a Brazilian company, Embraer.

We know that the Canadian government made a network attack against the Brazilian Ministry of Mines a few years ago. Obviously the information being sought was of an economic nature. Today, with so much at stake, it's foolish to assume that GovCan wouldn't mount a network attack on a private Brazilian firm, also looking for economically useful information. After all, if you'll hack the Brazilian government, why would you refuse to touch a Brazilian company?

The same is generally true of all nations with hacking capabilities. Absent some treaty, they will attempt to penetrate the networks of both foreign governments and foreign companies.