Canada on Wednesday identified state-sponsored programs in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as major cyber crime threats for the first time, and said it feared foreign actors could try to disrupt power supplies.
The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) signals intelligence agency said the programs posed the greatest strategic threat to Canada.
“State-sponsored cyber activity is generally the most sophisticated threat,” CSE said in its second national cyber threat assessment.
CSE’s first study, released in 2018, mentioned foreign-based actors without identifying them. In July, Canada, Britain and the United States accused Russian-backed hackers of trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine data.
China and Russia have repeatedly denied trying to break into other nations’ critical infrastructure.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday that Canada’s claims were groundless and China is itself a victim of cyber attacks.