Foreign state and non-state actors are increasingly hoovering up “big data” on Canadians to better focus their foreign influence campaigns, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.
Alia Tayyeb, the deputy chief of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), told the foreign interference inquiry that hostile intelligence agencies are gathering large amounts of data about Canadians’ personal lives to “help influence campaigns.”
“One of the newer developments in the threat landscape is the prevalence of personal information online about individuals. And so … one thing we’re seeing increasingly is the corollary of that is big data collection,” Tayyeb told the Hogue inquiry.
“So where state actors, and non-state actors quite frankly, collect personal information, commercial information, with an attempt to use that information for a variety of purposes which range from traditional espionage (or) in the context of this commission, for foreign interference activities as well.”
Tayyeb is the deputy chief at CSE responsible for signals intelligence — basically, collecting foreign intelligence from the internet — so she would be familiar with the value of collecting large amounts of data for intelligence purposes. The CSE is not permitted to spy on Canadians or anyone in Canada, except in cases where they’re assisting domestic law enforcement or security agencies.
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But she said the CSE also sees actors like the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continuing to use traditional forms of espionage, such as the “use of proxies, use of proxy organizations, (and the) use of state-run media” to further their interests, in addition to the cyber threats that CSE attempts to counter.
The CSE was one of the central security organizations — along with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the RCMP — tasked with ensuring the integrity of Canada’s democratic institutions in the lead-up to the 2019 election.
That move was largely prompted by the Liberal government’s reaction to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, along with the 2017 French presidential election and the Brexit referendum in the U.K., and allegations of foreign interference in those events.
Ahead of the 2019 general election, a senior national security source — speaking on the condition they not be named — said that Canadian intelligence had not noticed a significant spike in cyber threats from hostile states compared to the persistent, baseline activity. In other words, China isn’t going to stop hacking just because Canada is throwing an election.
Caroline Xavier, the current chief of the CSE, made a similar point to the inquiry on Thursday.
“The threats that we’re describing this morning are not only within an electoral period,” Xavier said.
The foreign interference commission, led by Québec appeals court Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, has a narrower focus that persistent cyber threats however. The inquiry, prompted after months of reporting on foreign interference through leaked intelligence reports and confidential sources, is focused on influence operations during the 2019 and 2021 general elections — and the federal government’s response to those threats.
In her preliminary report in May, Hogue said that while there was attempts by foreign powers to influence both elections, the integrity of Canada’s electoral system held. In other words, Canadians alone were responsible for electing their government in both contests.
But Hogue’s inquiry has already unearthed or confirmed significant details about foreign interference in Canada, including that some candidates in the 2019 election appeared willing to go along with foreign interference schemes.
The current phase of testimony is scheduled to run to Oct. 16, and hear from more senior intelligence officials, bureaucrats and politicians, including a second day of testimony from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Hogue’s final report and recommendations are due by the end of the year.
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