Spy agency warns of espionage risk with foreign takeovers
Dick Fadden
Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS Two years ago, CSIS director Dick Fadden made headlines by openly speaking of provincial cabinet members and municipal politicians coming under foreign influence.
OTTAWA—Canada’s top spy is sounding the alarm over security threats facing Canada, including radicalized Somali youth, state-owned corporations who snoop on Canadian business interests and cyber-attackers who attempt to hack the federal government’s computer network daily.
Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service used the agency’s annual report to issue a pointed warning about the potential risks posed by foreign state-owned companies.
His message comes as the federal government is reviewing a proposal by CNOOC Ltd., a state-owned Chinese firm, to take over Calgary-based Nexen Inc., an oil-and-gas company.
“Certain state-owned enterprises and private firms with close ties to their home governments have pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits here,” Fadden says in the report which was released Thursday.
“When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests.”
Fadden steers clear of naming any specific countries or companies. But he warns that foreign firms might use a take-over to exploit control to “facilitate illegal transfers of technology or to engage in other espionage and other foreign interference activities.
“CSIS expects that national security concerns related to foreign investment in Canada will continue to materialize, owing to the increasingly prominent role that (state-owned enterprises) are playing in the economic strategies of some foreign governments,” he wrote.
The report covers the period 2010-11 for the spy agency, which employs more than 3,000 people and has a budget of $515 million, which has more than doubled in the decade since the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Fadden says that “several” counter-terrorist operations by CSIS and its partners “resulted in the prevention of attacks in Canada.”
He said cyber-attacks mark a growing worry for security analysts and said that serious attempts are being made daily to penetrate the federal government’s computers.
Other targets for cyber-attackers trying to collect espionage include aerospace and high-technology industries along with oil and gas firms and universities doing research and development.
He said mounting attacks over the Internet are a “low-cost and low-risk” way for foreign intelligence agencies to collect information.
He said Somalia remains a “major” security threat for Canada where the terrorist group Al Shabaab controls significant parts of the country.
“Numerous young Somali-Canadians have travelled to Somalia for terrorist training, a disturbing phenomenon that has also been seen in the US and in other Western countries with a Somali diaspora,” Fadden said.
“Somali-Canadians are rightly worried about the radicalization of some of their youth,” he said.
Related: Nexen shareholders approve $15.1 billion CNOOC offer
Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service used the agency’s annual report to issue a pointed warning about the potential risks posed by foreign state-owned companies.
His message comes as the federal government is reviewing a proposal by CNOOC Ltd., a state-owned Chinese firm, to take over Calgary-based Nexen Inc., an oil-and-gas company.
“Certain state-owned enterprises and private firms with close ties to their home governments have pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits here,” Fadden says in the report which was released Thursday.
“When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests.”
Fadden steers clear of naming any specific countries or companies. But he warns that foreign firms might use a take-over to exploit control to “facilitate illegal transfers of technology or to engage in other espionage and other foreign interference activities.
“CSIS expects that national security concerns related to foreign investment in Canada will continue to materialize, owing to the increasingly prominent role that (state-owned enterprises) are playing in the economic strategies of some foreign governments,” he wrote.
The report covers the period 2010-11 for the spy agency, which employs more than 3,000 people and has a budget of $515 million, which has more than doubled in the decade since the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Fadden says that “several” counter-terrorist operations by CSIS and its partners “resulted in the prevention of attacks in Canada.”
He said cyber-attacks mark a growing worry for security analysts and said that serious attempts are being made daily to penetrate the federal government’s computers.
Other targets for cyber-attackers trying to collect espionage include aerospace and high-technology industries along with oil and gas firms and universities doing research and development.
He said mounting attacks over the Internet are a “low-cost and low-risk” way for foreign intelligence agencies to collect information.
He said Somalia remains a “major” security threat for Canada where the terrorist group Al Shabaab controls significant parts of the country.
“Numerous young Somali-Canadians have travelled to Somalia for terrorist training, a disturbing phenomenon that has also been seen in the US and in other Western countries with a Somali diaspora,” Fadden said.
“Somali-Canadians are rightly worried about the radicalization of some of their youth,” he said.
Related: Nexen shareholders approve $15.1 billion CNOOC offer
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