Chinese hackers had access to Canadian government systems for years

For half a decade, Chinese spies have apparently been monitoring government networks

News By Sead Fadilpašić published 31 October 2024

Chinese hackers have been dwelling on computers, networks, and other IT infrastructure of the Canadian government for five years, monitoring - and stealing - sensitive information, experts have warned.

This is according to “National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026”, a paper published by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre), the country's technical authority on cybersecurity, and part of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE).

The paper claims, the state-sponsored threat actors were engaged in cyber-espionage with the goal of gaining strategic, economic, and diplomatic advantages.

Targeting political enemies

“PRC state-sponsored cyber threat actors persistently conduct cyber espionage against federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous government networks in Canada,” the paper reads. “PRC cyber threat actors have compromised and maintained access to multiple government networks over the past five years, collecting communications and other valuable information.”

The paper concludes that “all known federal government compromises” have been resolved, but stresses that the threat actors dedicated “significant time and resources” to learn about the target networks, suggesting that there may be remnants of the attacks.

The Chinese were not just looking, either. When they saw an appropriate target - they struck. Apparently, government officials critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were attacked, back in 2021. Namely, members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) were targeted with emails designed to place trackers onto the victim’s devices, for network reconnaissance.

The Chinese seem mostly interested in advanced robotics, quantum computing, 6G networks, intelligence computing centers, Web3 (blockchain), and advanced aviation. The report also concludes that private sector organizations (mostly in these industries) were also in the crosshairs.

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