Canada spy agency report highlights hacking threats, foreign interference, extremism
Canada’s spy agency says it handled 2,561 cyber incidents and can use active cyber operations to disrupt foreign threats, signaling a move beyond defense.
Canada’s cyber centre handled 2,561 security incidents last year and sent pre-ransomware warnings to more than 300 organizations.
The Communications Security Establishment’s unclassified Annual Report for 2024 to 2025 covers April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 and says the agency had 3,841 full-time permanent employees and more than $1 billion in total authorities. Its mandate covers foreign signals intelligence, cyber security, foreign cyber operations, active cyber operations and defensive cyber operations. Canada is also part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It handled 1,155 of the incidents affecting federal institutions and 1,406 involving critical infrastructure partners. It produced 3,385 foreign intelligence reports in the same period. In January 2026, CSE said 336 pre-ransomware notifications it issued to more than 300 Canadian organizations in 2024 generated estimated savings of up to $18 million. The annual report lists CSE support for Arctic security and sovereignty, aid to the Joint Operational Intelligence Cell on border security and the Border Action Plan, intelligence and guidance to the National Cyber Security Strategy, and a CSE Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
In 2025, Health Canada said fentanyl analogues surpassed fentanyl in the illicit opioid supply in 2024, and that more than two-thirds of clandestine labs dismantled in Canada between 2018 and 2024 were fentanyl synthesis sites concentrated in Western Canada and Ontario. Ottawa appointed Kevin Brosseau as Fentanyl Czar in February 2025, and his June interim report said thousands of Canadians have died from fentanyl and other synthetic opioid overdoses.
Canada’s December 2025 terrorist listings added 764, Maniac Murder Cult, Terrorgram Collective and Islamic State-Mozambique. The government lists 764 as a decentralized transnational violent-extremist network that uses social media and gaming platforms to groom and extort youth and encourage offline violence.
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