"There's also a lot of information on banking transactions, suggesting that the perpetrators were trying to expose specific transactions. This theory can be further strengthened by the hacker's attempts to profile the bank's customers into different categories, mostly focusing on Qatar's TV network along with other foreign agencies, some of which are categorised as 'spies'."

He added: "Interestingly, there is also additional data about mainly foreign bank account holders, which includes information such as their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, along with 'friends' associated through those social networks. This data doesn't appear to have come directly from the bank itself, rather the perpetrator used the data held by the bank to then build up profiles of further targets."