Major Chinese cyber attack on Canadian research

The Canadian government says hackers acting for the Chinese government have broken into the computers of one of Canada’s major research centres

With the discovery of Chinese infiltration, the National Research Council (NRC) took its computer system offline to isolate it from other government systems as a precaution. The NRC said it will take some time before a new and more secure system will be operational.

Michel Juneau-Katsuya CEO of Northgate Security and Strategic Intelligence, and former senior intelligence manager at Canada’s national security agency, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS)

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The National Research Council is considered a world leader in technological research working with defence, aerospace, satellite technologies, energy, medicine and other areas of scientific and industrial innovation and as such is considered a highly strategic target.

Now the NRC says it may take as long as a year to develop a new, more secure system. The security breach comes even as the NRC was working on an advanced computer encryption technology in cooperation with both private sector and university research teams on a physics-based concept that is supposed to thwart such attacks.

Another government agency, Shared Services Canada, has been wanting to take over the NRC system as part of a government effort to consolidate its many systems and networks to reduce costs, modernize the systems and improve security throughout.

“A highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor”

What is somewhat unusual is the government reaction in clearly stating who was behind the attack. For the first time the government is openly blaming China.

A “highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor” recently managed to hack into the computer systems at Canada’s National Research Council said Canada’s chief information officer, Corinne Charette.

Generally in the past, such direct naming of the culprits was kept vague in public statements.

In response to an inquiry sent by reporters at Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC,  a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said China does “not accept the groundless allegation of [the] Chinese government’s involvement in any cyber intrusion or attack.”

This latest attack was confirmed by Communications Security Establishment Canada, a federal cryptologic and signals intelligence agency and reports to the Minister of National Defence. It said the attack also targeted Defence Research and Development Canada.

It comes at a delicate moment as Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister was on an official visit to China setting up a later visit by Canada’s Prime Minister.

Canada’s Finance Department, Treasury Board, Bank of Canada and personal emails of Members of Parliament have also come under attack in recent years

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