If Russia is proven to be responsible for the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee, it would mark another episode in which the nation has attempted to influence foreign politics.takes a closer look at Russia's history of hacking foreign interests, which is essentially a modernized form of espionage.Russian hackers, for example, conducted a cyberattack on Ukraine during that country's 2014 presidential election. And its military actions in Crimea have influenced the United States' policy toward its former enemy during the Cold War.Russia was in fact the party that stole DNC email files, which were leaked last week ahead of this week's convention in Philadelphia."In the Putin era, Russia has been aggressive on many fronts, including invasions of Georgia and Ukraine," Kenneth Geers, an ambassador of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, told The Daily Signal."In cyberspace, the concepts of sovereignty and jurisdiction are much less clear. If Putin can deny that his tanks are in Donetsk, he can certainly deny that his malicious code is in a DNC server."The DNC hired a cybersecurity company to investigate the hack, which actually occurred in April. The company found evidence that Russia was behind the attack, reports The Daily Signal.Geers said Russia has stepped up its cyber warfare actions."In Ukraine, there has been significant manipulation of the information space, from the capture of U.S. diplomatic communications via signals intelligence and their publication on YouTube, to fraudulent Facebook and VKontakte accounts created for more tactical information operations," he said.The U.S. government is investigating the DNC hack and hasthat Russia was behind it.