The CBC reported that the head of Canada‘s intelligence agency said state actors had caused “significant harm” to Canadian companies. He also named Communist China and Russia for the first Time in his speech.
Photo: Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director David Vigneault
The head of Canada’s spy agency said Tuesday that Canadian companies in nearly every sector of the economy have been targeted by hostile foreign actors – naming Russia and China as two of the main sources of his concern.
“The threat from all forms of hostile activity by state actors is a significant threat to Canada’s prosperity and sovereignty,” said David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, in his first public speech in three years.
“Our investigation shows that this threat has unfortunately caused significant harm to Canadian companies.”
Vigneault said Canada’s biopharmaceutical, health, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, marine technology and aerospace sectors face particularly serious threat activity because they operate primarily in academia and small start-ups.
“They have been subjected to human and cyber-supported threats and suffered losses,” he said in a virtual presentation at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a (think tank).
“The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has observed sustained and sophisticated state-sponsored threat activity for many years, and we continue to see the frequency and sophistication of this threat activity rise.
Vigneault’s presentation builds on his 2018 speech that sounded the alarm about economic espionage – a growing source of concern for the intelligence agency, which has historically focused on countering violent extremism.
“While violent extremism remains a persistent threat to our security and an important concern for the Security Intelligence Service, the greatest strategic threat to Canada’s national security comes from hostile activities in foreign countries,” Vigneault said today.
“Historically, spies have focused on obtaining Canadian political, military and diplomatic secrets. While these secrets remain attractive, today our adversaries are more focused on intellectual property and advanced research held in the computer systems of small start-ups, corporate boards or university labs across the country.”
State Actors Target Employees, Students
The director singled out Russia and China (Communist Party) as bad actors – another shift in the intelligence community over the past few years.
“It’s no secret that we are most concerned about the actions of governments such as Russia and China (Communist). But we also shouldn’t ignore the development of threat activity that can come from anywhere in the world,” he said.
Hostile actors are known to target employees, former employees, students, professors, contractors and business partners to gain access to an organization’s IT systems, he said.
“At the request of threat actors, insiders can disrupt systems and cause damage, or open back doors to allow access from across the street or across the ocean. They can just steal the information and then store it on a flash drive and walk out the door.” Vigneault said.
While Vigneault has already spoken about Russian and Chinese covert operations in front of parliamentary committees, his comments today were the first time he named the two countries in his speech.
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