OTTAWA – For the first time, the federal cyber defence agency has identified India as a threat to Canada’s cybersecurity, though China’s capabilities and threat to our national security remain “second to none.”
In its biennial National Cyber Threat Assessment (NCTA) released Wednesday, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is clear: India is building a cyber program and is likely using it against the Canadian government to commit espionage.
It also warns that as Canada’s diplomatic relationship with India deteriorates, India’s cyber threat activity against Canadian individuals and organizations will increase.
The Canada-India relationship is near-glacial since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly linked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to a number of serious crimes against Sikh separatists in Canada.
That includes suspected ties from the “highest levels” of the Indian government to the murder of two individuals on Canadian soil last year and a number of other violent crimes.
Other than India, the 2025-2026 NCTA also lists known Canadian state cyber adversaries China, India, Russia and North Korea.
In the report, CSE’s cyber centre head Rajiv Gupta worries that state adversaries are getting “bolder and more aggressive” and will very likely attack civilian infrastructure if Canada were to join a military conflict against them.
“State-sponsored cyber threat actors are almost certainly attempting to cause disruptive effects, such as denying service, deleting or leaking data, and manipulating industrial control systems, to support military objectives and/or information campaigns,” reads the report.
“We assess that our adversaries very likely consider civilian critical infrastructure to be a legitimate target for cyber sabotage in the event of a military conflict.”
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) remains the greatest threat to Canada’s cybersecurity, above all other state and non-state actors.
The report reveals that PRC cyber criminals have compromised “at least” 20 networks linked to the Canadian government, though it does not offer more detail.
The report notes that China actively conducts cyber attacks against Canadian interests for a multiple self-service political and economic reasons, including espionage, transnational repression against critics abroad as well as intellectual property theft.
“Among our adversaries, the PRC cyber program’s scale, tradecraft, and ambitions in cyberspace are second to none,” reads the report.
More to come …
National Post
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