Since the hit of the pandemic, Canada has reported an increase in foreign secret spy and interference. In 2020 a public report by the Canadian security intelligence released dropped interference by foreign States on a level not seen since the Cold War.This fragility of security is believed to be due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Canadian security intelligence service (CSIS) suggests the nation was threatened and weak due to extremely violent cyber activities. These activities, with time, evolved into something serious, leading to a national thread for Canadian citizens.
According to David Vigneault, director of the Canadian security intelligence service, the world environment changed after the pandemic and introduced new habits to the lives of people. But with the common people, threat actors also used this recent change for their benefit.
The everchanging and rapid nature of the pandemic led to the formation of a situation in which the threat actors, for their gain, easily exploited.
The internet during the pandemic had become a dependency for people around the globe to survive. People needed it for entertainment and sustaining lives as most jobs transformed into work-from-home jobs. But with this complex interconnection, cyber activity became easy, as cyber actors could perform illegal activities such as threats online.
The threat actors also used the platform to promote violence through propaganda, which promotes false and dangerous beliefs such as xenophobia and conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic.
Role of Chinese and Russian secret spy community
The report also points out that China and Russia initiated these mysterious, illegal activities.
The Canadian security intelligence service said the following two countries, among the other foreign states, have collected valuable political, economic and military information through malicious threat activities for their gain.
One such incident that raised concern for the nation was when threat actors related to the People’s Republic of China tried to use critical freedoms highly protected by Canadian society as leverage against the nation to develop more political gain for the Communist Party of China. This incident was observed in a report only two months after the director of Canadian security intelligence in February officially identified China as a state posing threat to Canada. Intelligent security has identified many other countries for malicious threat programs, including Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
Secret cyber spy community attacking public health agency of the country
These cyber-attacks how not only affected national security but public health, as well as criminals through malicious activities and intellectual test of properties, which have increased global anxiety during the pandemic
The medical covid-19 research organizations of Canada have also Been under attack leading to a critical vulnerability in the nation
These actors can target Medical Research and lab results regarding the vaccine and other solutions in Canada through manipulative ways like spear-phishing or through stay home employees as more employees have started to connect to their office through VPNs(virtual private networks)
Even though no intellectual threat of property by stealing data generated by Canadian researchers is a malicious activity with a low probability. However, if it occurs, it can have a high impact.
The Canada cyber secret spy agency data authorities are also investigating security breaches that could occur at Canadian organizations researching covid-19.
Scott Jones, head of the Communications security establishment cyber center, has said compromises had been noticed in the research by organizations. They have been looking to handle and find the root of these issues. The communication Security Department wanted to know whether any of the malicious activity was a success or not and their source.
The covid-19 research organizations are prone to be threatened by online hackers; nonetheless, whether these compromises are state-sponsored or not is clear.
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