Cyber spies say they shared names of parliamentarians targeted by China-backed espionage with Commons, Senate
As questions about why Canadian parliamentarians weren't warned they had been targeted by a Chinabacked espionage cam‐ paign continue to mount, Canada's cyber intelligence agency says it shared the names of the MPs and oth‐ er "specific" information with the House of Com‐ mons and Senate IT offices years ago.
When asked why MPs weren't briefed, a spokesper‐ son for the Speaker's office said the House of Common‐ s's security team ultimately thwarted the attack and it didn't affect members' com‐ munications
The back-and-forth comes a day after parliamentarians called out the government for not informing them that they had been targeted by a pixel reconnaissance cyber attack launched by a sus‐ pected Beijing-controlled en‐ tity back in 2021.
The Communications Se‐ curity Establishment, the Canadian agency responsible for foreign signals intelli‐ gence, cyber operations and cyber security, said Tuesday evening it received that infor‐ mation in June of 2022 from the Federal Bureau of Investi‐ gation.
"Once the FBI report was received by Canada's security agencies, the information that included the names of the targeted parliamentari‐ ans was shared immedi‐ ately," said spokesperson Ryan Foreman in an email to CBC News.
"CSE shared specific, ac‐ tionable technical informa‐ tion on this threat with House of Commons (HoC) and Senate IT officials."
Mathieu Gravel, spokesperson for the Office of the Speaker of the House of Commons, said their cyber security team then investi‐ gated.
"The House of Commons cybersecurity team works di‐ rectly with Members of Par‐ liament when they are af‐ fected by malicious and cy‐ ber threats ... in this case, it determined that the risk miti‐ gation measures in place had successfully prevented any attack," he said.
"There were no cyberse‐ curity impacts to any mem‐ bers or their communica‐ tions."
That statement wasn't good enough for Conserva‐ tive MP Garnett Genuis, one of the MPs targeted.
"Fundamentally, Parlia‐ mentarians should have been told and were not," he said Tuesday night.
"House of Commons IT is not supposed to be expected to do the work of our secu‐ rity and intelligence agencies, and the government had a responsibility to inform us."
WATCH | Politicians tar‐ geted by China-backed hackers demand answers
On Monday, Canadian members of the Inter-Parlia‐ mentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said the FBI told the in‐ ternational organization that some of its members had been targeted by the group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31), an organization Western allies assert is an arm of China's Ministry of State Security.
Pixel attacks use malware embedded in an image to send information back to the attacker with basic informa‐ tion about the target, includ‐ ing IP addresses and which computer network systems they use. They can be used to help attackers set up more damaging attacks down the road. 18 Canadian politicians targeted, says MP
Genuis said IPAC's executive director told him last week that he and 17 other Canadi‐ ans had been targeted.
Citing privacy reasons, Genuis didn't name all of the Canadians on that list. So far, Liberals MPs John McKay and Judy Sgro, Conservative MPs James Bezan, Stephanie Kusie and Tom Kmiec and Sen. Marilou McPhedran have come forward to say they were targeted.
"I can't see a good reason for not telling people that they're being targeted, espe‐ cially when those people are parliamentarians," said McPhedran.
CSE initially wouldn't com‐ ment on a specific cyber inci‐ dent. After some pushback, it revealed Tuesday that it had shared the information with the House of Commons and Senate years ago. The CSE statement said the House briefed and informed MPs with a "general message."
"Even though it may not always be public, CSE has and will continue to take a range of measures to protect MPs and senators, including remaining in regular contact with House of Commons and Senate relevant officials," said CSE spokesperson Janny Bender Asselin.
A spokesperson for the Senate said communications between the Red Chamber and cybersecurity partners are confidential.
"We can confirm that in all instances when the Senate is
informed of or detects a credible cyberthreat, the Sen‐ ate's Information Services Di‐ rectorate takes prompt ac‐ tion to mitigate the risk and address it going forward," said Alison Korn.
"The specific way in which internal communications oc‐ cur varies, as do specific ac‐ tions taken, and these are not discussed publicly."
Gravel said that beyond receiving intelligence from CSE, the House employs "lay‐ ers of robust cybersecurity protections and monitoring programs to ensure the in‐ tegrity of the parliamentary environment."
He also said the House's cybersecurity team conducts ongoing awareness cam‐ paigns to disseminate infor‐ mation and share best prac‐ tices.
Genuis said he doesn't re‐ call any briefing where he was told he was targeted, or where APT31 was raised. He called Tuesday's revised CSE statement an act of "butt covering" by the government.
On Monday, he asked
Speaker Greg Fergus to con‐ sider tasking a parliamentary committee to investigate whether members' privileges have been violated. Fergus is still weighing the matter.
Public Safety Minsiter Do‐ minic LeBlanc said Tuesday he was trying to determine the facts.
"I'm not prepared to say that no notifications were given," he said.
Intelligence flow ques‐ tioned
This is not the first time the
Canadian government and its intelligence agencies have been accused of not in‐ forming MPs and senators of foreign interference threats.
Last year, the Liberal gov‐ ernment directed CSIS to share more information di‐ rectly with Parliamentarians under threat, and to create a direct line to the minister of public safety.
That directive came in re‐ sponse to the backlash that followed news that China was targeting the family Con‐ servative MP Michael Chong in retaliation for his sponsor‐ ship of a motion condemning China's treatment of the Uyghur minority as genocide.
The question of how intel‐ ligence and security is shared at the federal level is a key focus of the foreign interfer‐ ence inquiry investigating al‐ legations of election med‐ dling.
Commissioner MarieJosée Hogue, who is running the inquiry, is set to present an interim report on Friday.