Cyber Security

"[The Communications Security Establishment Canada] detected and confirmed a cyber intrusion on the IT infrastructure of the National Research Council of Canada."
"Following assessment by NRC and its security partners, action has been taken to contain and address this security breach, including protecting its information holdings and notifying the privacy commissioner. NRC has also taken steps to inform its  clients and stakeholders about this situation."
"NRC is continuing to work closely with its IT experts and security partners to create a new secure IT infrastructure. Every step is being taken to minimize disruption."
National Research Council statement

Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo  The Communications Security Establishment Canada complex is pictured in Ottawa. The spy agency says In a statement, the government says a cyber attack on federal government computers came from "a highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor."

A massive, year-long security overhaul of NRC's computer systems has been launched in the wake of a series of cyber attacks, and those attacks are believed to have emanated from China. Why might China be interested in what the National Research Council of Canada is doing? China is interested in finding solutions to vexing questions by trawling through the IT systems of other governments, of science councils, of international corporations; in short wherever it can manage to short-track the tedious business of investing time and expertise in discovering their own government, military, industrial or commercial formulae for just about anything.

The National Research Council is working on an advanced computer encryption system meant to prevent just such attacks, working alongside private sector and university research teams on a physics-based, state-of-the-art advanced system. Even while, in doing so, it hopes to prevent any and all such future intrusions, their discoveries to advance security are also of huge interest to China, never averse to hi-jacking the advances that other agencies have succeeded with, and illegally and immorally copying.

"The emerging field of quantum communication promises unhackable, secure communication that can be applied to protect our digital infrastructure" explains NRC's website. "NRC is developing photonics-based, quantum-enhanced cuber security solutions ... collaborating to develop technologies that address increased demands for high-performance security for communications, data storage and data processing." A little bit of irony there and perhaps incentive to accelerate the process....


Those statements would be of interest to the casual Canadian taxpayer happening upon the NCR website, giving them the assurance that NRC is busy spending taxpayer funding very well. Of course that represents just one of countless valuable scientific and commercial enquiries, investigations, research experiments and topics that the federal research council is involved with, in laboratories both within their own buildings and at universities and private companies around the country.

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   REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

That particular statement updating the curious, would also appeal hugely, irresistibly, to covert national agents conducting Internet surveillance, persuading them it is well worth their while to lurk about in the inner cyber-sanctums of the National Research Council to search out whatever can be retrieved to be of benefit to them, without the cost and exercise of actual scientific research and experimentation. If, successful, that kind of technology would place Canada as a leader in the field of quantum cyber security.

The intelligence-and-security breach has resulted in a lengthy shut-down of the NRC's website and Internet presence, locking down accessibility until it can be assured that no further such break-ins will occur to compromise the integrity of their web presence, and result in the stealth capture of valuable materials.   Still, according to one academic, the breach is unlikely to harm research on an alarming scale.

Most of the science and engineering conducted by NRC's partners are done by individuals or small groups maintaining their data separately from NRC's servers "I'm interested (in the cyber attack) as a Canadian citizen but, as a research scientist, this has zero effect on me", he stated. Canada is in the process of integrating all of its federal IT departments with a view to consolidating 485 data centres into seven places, replacing 63 email systems with one, reducing the number of networks with a greater number of departments sharing IT infrastructure in a secure framework.

National Research Council, along with Health Canada, the RCMP, Department of National Defence, Transport Canada, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, all have IT operations which represent the most complex and sensitive IT infrastructure in Canada. Shared Services Canada is mandated to create consolidated data centres to cut down on costs and increase security, and perhaps in the process also create a system of improved data flow.

In the meanwhile, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, is currently on a China visit, to advance arrangements for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's projected state visit to China later in the year. While there he is discussing with his counterpart this very issue, among others. And given that China's ruling Communist Party has announced an investigation into its ex-security chief, perhaps it's timely. President Xi Jinping had expressed his unease with rampant corruption in his country and at his inauguration had stressed his intention to clear corruption out of its administration.

He may wish to extend his determination to present China as a more trusted political and trade partner to the international community by toning down his nation's infamous penchant for making off with other countries' patents, scientific and technological research results and commercial successes.