Canadian spy agency reports hacking three criminal groups in 2025

Source: The Record

Canadian intelligence officials executed state-authorized hacks against a ransomware gang, drug dealers and violent extremists in 2025. The three separate hacks — revealed in a report released last week by the country’s NSA-equivalent Communications Security Establishment (CSE) — were “active cyber operations” on foreign groups posing a threat to Canada. One of the operations used data pulled from devices connected to the internet to disrupt the operations of an unspecified foreign extremist group “spreading violent ideology and seeking to recruit in Western countries, including Canada.” Another operation used signals intelligence to map out the inner workings of an unspecified ransomware-as-a-service gang, disrupting the malware users’ ability to extort victims. The agency also said it carried out “authorized technical disruptions” against 10 major ransomware gangs to “make parts of their infrastructure unusable” last year. Full Story