Author: Christopher Parsons

Leaked documents reveal Canada’s cyber warfare tools :

Implanting malware on computer networks, disabling enemy computer systems, disrupting and grabbing control of an adversary’s infrastructure.

It all sounds so un-Canadian, but these are among the cyber warfare tools developed by the country’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE), according to documents obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Communications. The CSE is Canada’s electronic spy agency.

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The documents indicate that Canada’s computer networks have “been turned into a battlefield without any Canadian being asked: Should it be done? How should it be done?” said Christopher Parsons, surveillance expert with Citizen Lab, an international research group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

CSE monitors your emails to the government: What you need to know:

CSE declined to give CBC more specific information about the amount of email and metadata collected and when it is deleted. The agency told CBC such information “could assist those who want to conduct malicious cyberactivity against government networks.”

“The key issue is understanding how CSE retains data. Is it the case that when I email my MP they store it for one to four months? Or if it passes the buffer it’s deleted in days,” Chris Parsons, a cyber security expert at Citizen Lab who viewed the document for CBC, told Global News.

Another concern Parsons raised is what happens to law abiding citizens who happen to have malware on their computers. If they email their MP – with no malicious intent – and unintentionally pass along a virus, what happens to their information?

“How is that information treated? Are you treated like someone with a random virus, or are you classified as something?” Parsons asked.

Le Canada scrute environ 400 000 courriels des Canadiens chaque jour:

Chris Parsons, un expert de la sécurité sur Internet basé à Toronto affirme qu’il y a des raisons légitimes pour l’Agence de surveiller les communications des Canadiens avec leur gouvernement.

« Mais vous devriez être en mesure de communiquer avec votre gouvernement sans la crainte que ce que vous dites… pourrait revenir vous hanter de manière inattendue », dit Parsons.

« Lorsque nous recueillons des volumes énormes d’information, ce n’est pas seulement utilisé pour suivre les méchants. Cela se retrouve dans des banques de données pendant des années ou des mois à la fois et cela peut être utilisé à n’importe quel moment dans l’avenir « .

Canadian Spies Collect Domestic Emails in Secret Security Sweep:

Chris Parsons, an internet security expert with the Toronto-based internet think tank Citizen Lab, told CBC News that “you should be able to communicate with your government without the fear that what you say … could come back to haunt you in unexpected ways.”

Parsons said that there are legitimate cybersecurity purposes for the agency to keep tabs on communications with the government, but he added: “When we collect huge volumes, it’s not just used to track bad guys. It goes into data stores for years or months at a time and then it can be used at any point in the future.”

In a top-secret CSE document on the security operation, dated from 2010, the agency says it “processes 400,000 emails per day” and admits that it is suffering from “information overload” because it is scooping up “too much data.”

First time (I think…) that I’ve been quoted in The Intercept.

CSE monitors millions of Canadian emails to government:

The program to protect government servers from hackers, criminals and enemy states is raising questions about the breadth of the collection, the length of retention and how the information could be shared with police and spy partners in other countries.

Chris Parsons, an internet security expert who viewed the document, said there are legitimate purposes for the agency to monitor your communications with the government.

“But you should be able to communicate with your government without the fear that what you say … could come back to haunt you in unexpected ways,” says Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow at Citizen Lab, a unit at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

“When we collect huge volumes, it’s not just used to track bad guys. It goes into data stores for years or months at a time and then it can be used at any point in the future.”