OTTAWA — Canada’s digital spy agency responded to more than 2,000 attacks on the federal government and its critical infrastructure partners last year, according to a new report, amid heightened concerns over the use of cyber warfare tactics by foreign actors.
Espionage
RCMP suspected person leaking secrets had high-level computer access, Ortis investigation search warrants show
The RCMP suspected someone senior in its ranks was offering to spill secrets, but still didn’t know the identity of the alleged leaker for several months after they first learned highly confidential information about investigations had been compromised.
The revelation is contained in court documents unsealed late last week at the request of The Fifth Estate.
The documents suggest investigators ultimately focused on a small group who had access to sensitive information stored on an RCMP server “controlled by the RCMP National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre,” and “access to its files is limited to select authorized employees of the RCMP.”
China Cybercrime “Controlling Political Discourse In Canada” Says Official Report
According to a recent report from Clairvoyance Cyber Corp., tech companies such as Huawei and China Telecom are now targeting Canada in a “multifaceted type of warfare.”
As reported by Global News of Canada, Clairvoyance Cyber Corp. provides consulting services for CSIS and the RCMP. The report was completed in 2019 for Public Safety Canada, and warns that “state-sponsored cybercrime could be costing Canada an estimated $100 billion per year.”
Liberals take House Speaker to court to block release of unredacted records about fired scientists
The Liberal government is taking the House of Commons Speaker to court, in an unprecedented move to prevent the release of uncensored documents to members of Parliament that offer insight into the firing of two scientists from Canada’s top infectious-disease laboratory.
Did a Chinese Spymaster Defect to the US?
Circumstantial evidence mounts that a top Chinese official may have switched his allegiance.
The head of counterintelligence for the Chinese Ministry of State Security may have taken a treasure trove of secrets and defected to America.
The facts sound like they come straight out of a John le Carré novel, but growing rumors suggest Dong Jingwei, who is China’s vice minister of state security, may have quietly switched sides back in February. Dong reportedly escaped China on a secret flight out of Hong Kong, along with his daughter, Dong Yang, and a cache of confidential documents.
Fired Winnipeg lab scientist listed as co-inventor on two Chinese government patents
The federal Public Servants Inventions Act says a government employee cannot file a patent outside the country without the minister’s permission.
Hajdu stonewalls disclosure of Winnipeg lab files citing “national security” concerns
Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu once again refused to hand over documents related to the firing of two scientists from a federal infectious disease lab in Winnipeg.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, during a Canada-China Relations Committee meeting, Hajdu repeatedly refused to disclose information about the incident claiming that releasing the documents could harm Canada’s national security.
Bad News: China Is Copying More Than Stealth Fighter Jet Technology
Chinese thinking appears to closely mirror longstanding approaches used by U.S. developers to build and improve 5th-Generation aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35. Beyond that, emerging concepts for a Chinese 6th-generation stealth fighter correspond very closely to U.S. approaches now underway for years.
h/t Marvin
How Denmark helped America spy on Sweden
Who has been quietly helping the Americans spy on Sweden? Their neighbors across the water in Denmark
Alarge, investigative collaboration between Scandinavian public service outlets and European newspapers such as Le Monde and Süddeutsche Zeitung has revealed a rather sensational espionage story. The National Security Agency has reportedly been snooping on American allies, including Swedish politicians, with the help of…Sweden’s neighbor, Denmark.
Danish secret service helped US spy on Germany’s Angela Merkel: report
Denmark’s secret service helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a European media investigation published on Sunday revealed.
The disclosure that the US had been spying on its allies first started coming to light in 2013, but it is only now that journalists have gained access to reports detailing the support given to the NSA by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE).
Alberta orders universities to pause partnerships with links to Chinese government
“I am deeply concerned about the potential theft of Canadian intellectual property and further concerned that research partnerships with the People’s Republic of China may be used by Chinese military and intelligence agencies,” said Nicolaides in an emailed statement.
Spy who got the cold shoulder: how the west abandoned its star defector
On a cold winter’s day, eight months before the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, the west’s most valuable double agent went on the run in East Berlin. Warned that his colleagues in both the Polish intelligence service and the KGB were on to him, Michal Goleniewski spent days crisscrossing the city, desperately trying to evade their surveillance for long enough to reach the US consulate – and defect to the west.
The day he managed it proved to be one of the most important of the cold war, a new book published later this month will argue. Drawing on previously unpublished documents, it reveals that Goleniewski exposed 1,693 Soviet bloc agents, including some of the most infamous spies of the period.
“No other defector or agent – before or since – has identified such a vast haul of spies,” said Tim Tate, author of The Spy Who Was Left Out in the Cold.
Former Professor Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison for Using Federal Grants to Aid China’s Medical Research
A biomedical professor has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for carrying out a scheme to use millions of dollars in federal grant money to advance research in China, according to the Justice Department.
Zheng Songguo, a former professor at Ohio State University (OSU), pleaded guilty in November to lying on his National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications, in order to use $4.1 million in research grants to develop the fields of rheumatology and immunology for China, the department said.
US officials confirm 130 incidents of mysterious Havana syndrome brain injury
There have been more than 130 incidents of unexplained brain injury known as Havana syndrome among US diplomats, spies and defence officials, some of them within the past few weeks, it has been reported.
The New York Times said three CIA officers had reported serious symptoms since December, following overseas assignments, requiring outpatient treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. One episode was within the past two weeks.
The reported number of cases is about 70 more than had previously been acknowledged.
Microwaving the White House: Enemies Are Now Sonic Attacking Americans from American Soil
Unidentified parties have in recent years been directing sonic attacks on U.S. officials on American soil. One such attack even occurred on the grounds of the White House.
We should not be surprised. Failure to impose costs on known sonic attackers — the Cuban and Chinese regimes — almost certainly emboldened the perpetrators to think they could harm Americans in America.