An internal defense ministry’s note forwarded to Canadian government states that Satellites used for Canadian military operations are vulnerable to cyber attacks or even direct missile attacks. The alert clearly specifies that some foreign nations such as China and Russia are showing a lot of interest in waging technological attacks in order to create communication chaos, political disorder and economic crisis in the country.
Readers of Cybersecurity Insiders have to notify a fact over here that the Canadian military, like all other countries, heavily depends on space-based assets in order to make its navigational, positioning, intelligence gathering, communication and surveillance infrastructure perform normally.
Also in the past two years, the government of Canada has also made heavy investments in the next generation satellites to assist with search and rescue operations along with round the clock surveillance of maritime approaches to the country, including the Arctic.
However, the internal docs add that the Canadian government has completely failed in making an innovative investment in the tools meant for national defense to fend off cyber threats.
Note- A copy of the note with the title “Space Technology Trends: Threats & Opportunities” was recently obtained by The Canadian Press through the Act of “Right to disclose”. However, the Toronto based national news source claims that for some reasons several paragraphs were stripped from the note, prepared by Deputy Minister of National Defense last November.
Citing the example of China destroying one of its aging low orbit weather reporting satellite with a ballistic missile, the internal defense ministry’s note says that such kind of activities can pose as a serious threat to the functioning and progress of the government.
So, the Defense Ministry’s report says that Canada should join hands with the US and other allies to quickly replace its critical space assets with more innovative and sophisticated ones.
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