Canadian spy agency says interference reaches Cold War levels over Covid-19

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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) identified Russia and China as a special concern and said key threats to national security, such as violent extremism, foreign interference, espionage and malicious cyber activity, have increased in 2020 and in many ways it has become much more serious for Canadians. “

In its annual report last year, the CSIS linked the leap of foreign espionage to the growing number of people working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Foreign threat actors – including hostile intelligence services and those working on their behalf – have sought to exploit the social and economic conditions created by the pandemic” to gather valuable information, he said.

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The report was most recently from the Canadian intelligence community that focused on Russia and China.

The CSIS chief said in February that China posed a serious strategic threat, while the signal intelligence agency identified state-sponsored programs in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in November last year as threats to cybercrime for the first time. .

“In 2020, the CSIS observed espionage activities and foreign interference at levels not seen since the Cold War,” the CSIS said.

“China, Russia and other foreign states have continued to secretly gather political, economic and military information in Canada through threatening activities aimed at supporting their own state development goals.”

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