A report by Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) revealed that state-backed actors have collected valuable information from government

Chinese attackers accessed Canadian government networks – for five years

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2024-10-31 16:00:03

A report by Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) revealed that state-backed actors have collected valuable information from government networks for five years.

The biennial National Cyber Threat Assessment described the People's Republic of China's (PRC) cyber operations against Canada as "second to none." Their purpose is to "serve high-level political and commercial objectives, including espionage, intellectual property (IP) theft, malign influence, and transnational repression."

Over the past four years, at least 20 networks within Canadian government agencies and departments were compromised by PRC cyber threat actors.

The CSE assured citizens that all known federal government compromises have been resolved, but warned that "the actors responsible for these intrusions dedicated significant time and resources to learn about the target networks."

The report also alleges that government officials – particularly those perceived as being critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – were attacked. One of those attacks includes an email operation against members of Interparliamentary Alliance on China.