Parliamentary Committee Notes: Risks from Espionage, Sabotage, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Date:
April 26, 2022
Agency:
CSIS
Proposed Response:
- Considering the current situation in Ukraine, the Government of Canada remains vigilant to any threat activities against Canada and Canadian interests.
- CSIS’ Public Report makes clear that foreign interference and espionage threats to Canada are real, persistent, and increasing in some areas. This is not new.
- Espionage and sabotage, including through cyber means, are some of the greatest strategic threats to Canada’s national security because they undermine Canadian sovereignty, national interests, and values.
- These threat activities have long been present in Canada, but their scale, speed, range, and impact have grown as a result of globalization and technology.
- We know that Russia and other foreign states covertly gather political, economic, and military information in Canada through targeted threat activities in support of their own interests.
- While I cannot go into detail on specific measures, Canadians can rest assured that the Government uses the full suite of tools at its disposal to investigate and counter espionage and sabotage.
- The work of our security and intelligence agencies ensures the Government of Canada receives intelligence on these critical issues, and that actions to reduce the threat are taken as appropriate.
Espionage
- As an advanced economy and an open and free democracy, Canada is a target for state actors seeking to gain information, intelligence, and influence to advance their own national interests through hostile means.
- Canada’s abundance of natural resources, advanced technology, human talent, and expertise makes us a world leader in many sectors. We have powerful allies with whom we enjoy close economic, security, and defence relationships.
- All these factors make Canada and Canadian institutions and companies a target. As stated in the CSIS Public Report, espionage is persistent and increasing in areas including Canada’s economy and critical sectors.
- In fact, CSIS has seen an increased risk of foreign interference and espionage due to the extraordinary effort of Canadian businesses and research centres during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- As a result, throughout the pandemic, CSIS has conducted outreach and worked with these organizations to ensure that their work and proprietary information remains safely in their control.
Research Security
- Foreign states seek to acquire Canadian technology and expertise by using a range of traditional and non-traditional collection tradecraft, including by targeting academic research.
- This was particularly evident during the pandemic. Indeed, organizations across Canada engaged in efforts to combat COVID-19 and its effects were vulnerable to economic espionage.
- CSIS has identified universities, medical research institutes and laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, and high-tech companies as potential targets of threat actors.
- CSIS is particularly concerned about this threat with regard to the state-sponsored activities of China, and to a lesser degree from Russia and other nations, secretly seeking advantage.
- The Government worked with national security agencies to raise awareness of the risks of economic espionage, including a nationwide outreach initiative by CSIS, to protect the interests of biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries and businesses – and by extension the interests of all Canadians.
- This initiative by CSIS has already had an important impact. More than 200 organizations and 1,000 individuals were briefed and are now well-informed about the possible threats and have the tools necessary to protect themselves, their research and their employees.
Sabotage and Cyber Attacks
- Cyber actors conduct malicious activities to advance their political, economic, military, security, and ideological interests. They seek to compromise both government and private sector computer systems by manipulating their users or exploiting security vulnerabilities.
- In 2020, a cyber espionage group linked to Russian intelligence services conducted Computer Network Operations (CNOs) directed towards Canadian, British, and American-based organizations that were involved in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.
- These malicious cyber activities were believed to be an attempt to steal information and intellectual property related to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines.
- CSIS has observed persistent and sophisticated state-sponsored cyber threat activity for many years and continues to see a rise in the frequency and sophistication of this threat activity.
- Especially in the context of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, CSIS and other national security organizations have engaged in proactive outreach to stakeholders to inform and educate about state-sponsored cyber threats.
- In 2021, Canada joined the United States and international partners in voicing concerns related to a Russian cyber-espionage campaign that exploited the SolarWinds Orion platform.
- You will understand that I cannot discuss specifics about the Solar Winds compromise, but I would say CSIS is seeing an increase in the exploitation of cyber tools to steal sensitive information, conduct ransomware attacks, and cause disruption.
Use of chemical weapons
- The proliferation of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons, commonly referred to as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and their associated delivery vehicles constitutes a global challenge and a significant threat to the security of Canada and its allies.
- As CSIS noted in its Public Report, evidence indicates that Russian actors used a nerve agent to poison leading Russian opposition figure, Alexei Navalny.
- This attack contravened international norms prohibiting the use of chemical weapons and was strongly condemned by the Government of Canada.
- The event is also particularly troubling as it represents another instance of Russian state actors using chemical weapons to stifle dissent.
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