A report by Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) revealed that Chinese hackers had been collecting valuable information from government networks for five years.
Η biennial National Cyber Threat Assessment describes the People's Republic of China (PRC) cyber operations against Canada as "secondary" because their purpose was to track "high-level political and commercial targets, for espionage, intellectual property theft, malign influence."
Over the past four years, at least 20 networks within Canadian government agencies and departments have been breached by PRC hackers.
The CSE assured citizens that all known federal government breaches have been resolved, but warned that "those responsible for these intrusions spent significant time and resources learning the target networks."
The report also claims that government officials, particularly those seen as critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), were attacked.
The purpose of cyber attacks was primarily to obtain information that would lead to strategic, economic and diplomatic advantages. Activity appears to have been higher following incidents of bilateral tension between Canada and the DPRK, after which Beijing apparently wanted to gather timely information on official reactions and developments, according to the report.
Canada's private sector is also in the firing line, with the CSE reporting: "PRC hackers have stolen very likely commercially sensitive data from Canadian companies and institutions."
Operations that collect information that could support the DPRK's economic and military interests are priority targets.