Canada's intelligence service warns that technological innovations adopted by municipalities could be exploited by adversaries such as the Chinese government to harvest sensitive data, target diaspora communities and interfere in elections.
A newly released report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service urges policy-makers and the technology industry to consider steps that can be taken to address and ease the emerging security threat before "smart city" platforms are widely adopted.
The CSIS report, prepared in 2021, was only recently released to The Canadian Press in response to an access-to-information request filed in October of that year. Smart city projects in western countries have faced pushback due to privacy concerns, but China has "embraced the concept wholeheartedly," providing the country's technology companies with a competitive edge, the report says. Beijing's artificial intelligence advantage lies in its access to big data, lax privacy requirements and cheap labour to categorize data and build AI algorithms.
"This sort of exposure will have serious financial, social and health and safety implications in Canada. Imagine a scenario where a co-ordinated cyberattack took down safety locks that prevent catastrophic explosions at a petrochemical facility, while simultaneously controlling traffic lights to inhibit the emergency response."
"You can be sure if there's a very large-scale national database constructed, for example, that the police will want access to it sooner or later. And they'll come up with an argument for why they should."
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Opinion | Canada failed to protect Chinese Canadians from intimidation by BeijingOpinion: Chinese Canadians deserve the same protection as anyone else if a foreign government tries to influence their vote. The government let them down for years by not taking concrete steps to stop Beijing’s meddling.
Read more »
Canada still in the dark on origin, purpose of downed Chinese balloon, defence minister says\u0027Be very careful about making assumptions at this point,\u0027 Anand said when accused of hiding the balloon\u0027s \u0027nefarious purpose.\u0027
Read more »
Canada still in the dark on origin, purpose of downed Chinese balloon, defence minister says\u0027Be very careful about making assumptions at this point,\u0027 Anand said when accused of hiding the balloon\u0027s \u0027nefarious purpose.\u0027
Read more »
Canada still in the dark on origin, purpose of downed Chinese balloon, defence minister says\u0027Be very careful about making assumptions at this point,\u0027 Anand said when accused of hiding the balloon\u0027s \u0027nefarious purpose.\u0027
Read more »
Canada still in the dark on origin, purpose of downed Chinese balloon, defence minister says\u0027Be very careful about making assumptions at this point,\u0027 Anand said when accused of hiding the balloon\u0027s \u0027nefarious purpose.\u0027
Read more »
Canada still in the dark on origin, purpose of downed Chinese balloon, defence minister says\u0027Be very careful about making assumptions at this point,\u0027 Anand said when accused of hiding the balloon\u0027s \u0027nefarious purpose.\u0027
Read more »