Ottawa, June 29, 2020 – The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) today released its first unclassified, public Annual Report.
This past year has been a notable one for CSE, highlighted by the CSE Act coming into effect, setting out CSE’s lead role as the national authority for foreign intelligence and as the national technical authority for cyber security and information assurance. The CSE Act also reinforced the crucial elements of openness, transparency and accountability that are essential to CSE’s work. This Annual Report is one of those elements.
Maintaining Canadians’ trust and confidence is critical to CSE. While certain information about CSE’s work, and how it is done, must remain classified, this report aims to provide insight into what CSE does for Canada, why it is important and how CSE collaborates with its partners to make Canada a safer place for Canadians.
Quotes
“Today, as we release the first public Annual Report from the Communications Security Establishment, we acknowledge the increasingly complex cyber and geopolitical context we operate in. As such, presenting Canadians with a transparent report of what CSE does is crucial to us. CSE, as well as our entire government, is committed to the protection of Canada and Canadians from those who aim to undermine our nation’s security, prosperity, and competitiveness.”
Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan
“CSE’s mandate has always been important, but it has quietly and incrementally gained relevance over nearly three-quarters of a century collecting foreign intelligence and protecting information systems. Government of Canada priorities have changed over those decades, of course, as has the global technical landscape. Today, in 2020, the world is more polarized and geopolitically complex. And advanced, interconnected, and disruptive technologies are emerging at unprecedented rates. At the intersection of these two trends lies CSE’s modern-day cyber mandate.”
Shelly Bruce, Chief CSE
Quick facts
- CSE’s provided foreign intelligence reports to over 20 Government of Canada departments and agencies, addressing government priorities related to international affairs, defence and security.
- CSE’s Cyber Centre continued to deliver world class dynamic defence of Canadian government networks, routinely protecting federal systems from almost 2 billion malicious actions every day.
- CSE’s Cyber Centre continued to collaborate with Canadian industry to increase the amount of critical cyber threat information it shares.
- CSE released an updated assessment on cyber threats to Canada’s democratic processes and worked with numerous partners to ensure the security of the 2019 Canadian general election.
- CSE continues to grow its outreach program to promote STEM skills development among Canada’s youth and raise interest in STEM careers.
- CSE is a 24/7 operational agency, employing 2,900 people.