Offering a rare glimpse at the priorities of a top spy organization, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment said it conducted a handful of state-authorized hacks last year in order to disrupt the operations of drug traffickers, violent extremists, and a ransomware gang.
The disclosures in the Canadian intelligence agency’s annual report underscore some of the main national security threats that face Canada and its closest allies: ranging from the import of illegal drugs to cyberattacks. The spy agency, CSE, is tasked with collecting foreign intelligence, defending government systems, and disrupting online adversaries.
Published last week, the report says the CSE last year carried out three foreign “active cyber operations” — the term agency uses to describe its cyberattacks on overseas operations that threaten Canadian national security and public safety.
One of the operations, per the report, targeted cybercriminals outside of Canada who were brokering the sale of chemicals used to create the synthetic opioid, fentanyl. The CSE collected intelligence on the brokers, then conducted an operation that “disrupted and diminished their ability to operate,” the report said.
Another active operation involved the collection of signals intelligence — data produced from electronics and internet-connected devices — on an overseas extremist group that was spreading violent ideology and recruiting members, including in Canada.
The report said the agency analyzed the group’s organization, reach, and potential vulnerabilities to conduct an operation that “successfully undermined the group’s credibility and limited their ability to radicalize and recruit new members.”
Another operation involved disrupting a ransomware-as-a-service operation that let hackers rent access to a ransomware gang’s infrastructure to launch destructive extortion attacks. The CSE said its signals intelligence unit identified how the gang worked against the healthcare, transporta …