Canada’s cyber defence agency has said hackers are increasingly targeting Canada’s water systems, and that hackers backed by foreign states have gained access to these systems and could launch attacks “in times of crisis or conflict between states.”
“We assess that state-sponsored cyber threat actors have almost certainly developed pre-positioned access to Canadian water systems,” the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCSC) said in a Nov. 25 report.
The CCSC said in its report that water systems, which include those related to wastewater and floodwater, are “almost certainly” a priority for these state-sponsored actors to project power. CCSC said these actors have identified and gained access to operational technology systems related to water systems, where they then collect information on assets to “identify opportunities for disruptive or destructive action.”…