Canadian spy agency says it hacked drug traffickers, extremists and a ransomware gang last year

Very impressive, but should intelligence services perform law enforcement operations?

A news junky like me does not remember seeing or reading much news about the Canadian spy agency. 

"Offering a rare glimpse at the priorities of a top spy organization, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said it conducted a handful of state-authorized hacks last year in order to disrupt the operations of drug traffickers, violent extremists, and a ransomware gang. ..."

One of the operations, per the report, targeted cybercriminals outside of Canada who were brokering the sale of chemicals used to create the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The CSE collected intelligence on the brokers, then conducted an operation that “disrupted and diminished their ability to operate,” the report said.

Another active operation involved the collection of signals intelligence — data produced from electronics and internet-connected devices — on an overseas extremist group that was spreading violent ideology and recruiting members, including in Canada.

The report said the agency analyzed the group’s organization, reach, and potential vulnerabilities to conduct an operation that “successfully undermined the group’s credibility and limited their ability to radicalize and recruit new members.”

Another operation involved disrupting a ransomware-as-a-service operation that let hackers rent access to a ransomware gang’s infrastructure to launch destructive extortion attacks. The CSE said its signals intelligence unit identified how the gang worked against the healthcare, transportation, and business sectors in Canada, then used an active cyber operation that “rendered the group’s infrastructure inoperable.” The operation also deleted much of the data on the gang’s servers.

The agency said it undertook concurrent “technical disruptions” against 10 of the most significant ransomware gangs targeting Canada to “make parts of their infrastructure unusable.” ..."

Canadian spy agency says it hacked drug traffickers, extremists and a ransomware gang last year | TechCrunch

Communications Security Establishment Canada Annual Report 2025-2026

"Nuntium Comparat et Custodit" is a Latin phrase that translates to "Providing and protecting information". The official motto of the CSE.

Dozens of Mossad women operated on the ground in Iran during 12-Day War

The best spies are women! Forget about James Bond! 😊

"Dozens of Mossad women penetrated Iran and had boots on the ground, performing a variety of operations during Israel’s attacks on Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs in June, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Critically, the Post has come to understand that Mossad director David Barnea views the role that female Mossad agents played during the Israel-Iran war as very substantial.

While the exact nature of what these women did, exactly, is still classified, in 2024, a senior female Mossad agent, only known as “G” with an Iranian background and special expertise in Iran and in recruiting foreign spies in hostile countries, was honored with lighting a torch in the Independence Day ceremony. ..."

Mossad women operated in Iran during 12-Day War | The Jerusalem Post "The Mossad is poised to intervene if Tehran seems to be trying to use its uranium to move again in the direction of a nuclear weapon."

Putins Geheim-Einheit »29155«: Attacken auf Agenten und Diplomaten

Empfehlenswert! Seit gut 50 Jahren wird immer wieder behauptet, das die Soviet Union/Russland geheime Wellen Waffen einsetzt, die die Gesundheit ihrer Opfer verschlechtert. Warum der Westen bis heute dies nicht widerlegen noch belegen kann oder will ist komisch! Oder hat Der Spiegel die Widerlegung nicht berichtet?

US gave advance notice of Moscow attack. What is the 'duty to warn'?

Recommendable! This article provides a bit more background!

I think, the "duty to warn" principle has not been given enough attention that it deserves in the case of the horrific terrorist attack and massacre on a concert hall in Moscow.

Anybody with credible information about an impending terrorist attack aiming to kill or maim a multitude of individuals (including children) has a duty to warn.

What is apparently extremely critical is the timeliness of the warnings. Unlike in the Boston Marathon Bombings, where the Russians warned about two years to early, this time the warning was very timely in the case of the terrorist attack in Moscow.

Apparently, Putin the Terrible preferred to ignore the warning! Could this finally end his reign of terror as a war criminal!

"The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the U.S. intelligence community called the “duty to warn,” which obliges U.S. intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between. ...

Such warnings aren’t always heeded — the United States has dropped the ball in the past on at least one Russian warning of extremist threats in the United States. ...

On March 7, the U.S. government went public with a remarkably precise warning: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow was monitoring unspecified reports that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.” It warned U.S. citizens in Moscow to avoid big events over the next 48 hours.

U.S. officials said after the attack that they had shared the warning with Russian officials as well, under the duty to warn, but gave no details how. ...

The U.S. emphasis on sharing threat warnings increased after al-Qaeda’s Aug. 7, 1998, attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. While dozens of U.S. citizens and government employees of different nationalities were killed, Kenyans made up the majority of the victims.

In 2015, then national intelligence director James Clapper formalized duty to warn in an official directive: The U.S. intelligence community bore “a responsibility to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons of impending threats of intentional killing, serious bodily injury or kidnapping.” ...

Strategic U.S. dissemination of intelligence hit a high point in the months before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That’s when the U.S. opted to declassify key intelligence on Russia’s invasion plans to rally allies and Ukraine, and — unsuccessfully — to pressure Russia to call off its troops. ...

In January [2024], a U.S. official said, Americans had given a similar warning to Iranian officials ahead of bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, twin suicide bombings that killed 95 people. ...

In 2013, it was U.S. officials who, tragically, failed adequately to follow up on a Russian warning, a U.S. government review concluded later.

Concerned the man posed a threat to Russia as well, Russia’s Federal Security Service in 2011 warned U.S. officials that a U.S. resident, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was an adherent of extremist groups. After U.S. officials concluded Tsarnaev was not a threat in the U.S., he and his younger brother planted bombs along the route of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds."

US gave advance notice of Moscow attack. What is 'duty to warn'? | AP News

FBI Director Wray issues dramatic public warning: Chinese hackers are preparing to 'wreak havoc' on the US

Very recommendable! Very concerning! Is the FBI Director applying for a new job with the second Trump presidency? The senile, demented and corrupted 46th President was beholden to China, because if China would expose how corrupt he has been ...!

The workings of Mossad

Recommendable! However, it is an old documentary ending about 2015. Of course, the leftist German government media outlet Deutsche Welle took a swipe at then Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu!

I am somewhat familiar with some of the well known past missions of the Mossad. Though, I had e.g. forgotten about the first MIG 21 fighter plane mission. Egypt's President Anwar el-Sadat had a Mossad spy before the 1973 Yom Kippur war against Israel started, but things did not go well. Israel's incursion into Lebanon was a disaster.

Mossad played a key role in the success of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty.

Mossad allegedly tried abducting Hamas operatives in Malaysia with Malaysian surrogate agents. It failed!

This was probably not one of the finest hours of the fabled Mossad! Or Mossad was not even involved in this operation. I suspect the latter.

"... Four Malaysian mercenaries allegedly operating on behalf of the Mossad drove up to two Palestinian nationals, who were reportedly computer programming experts. They dragged one into the vehicle – warning the other to stay away – and drove him to a secretive location ...
Malaysian security forces freed the two Palestinian men and arrested the alleged Mossad operatives 24 hours later ...

Hamas has set up a network of satellite offices across the world – a network that reaches as far as the southeast Asian nation of Malaysia. During the Israeli-Hamas conflict in May 2021, the IDF announced that its policy was to target Hamas activists anywhere. Malaysia was noted specifically, as Hamas has built a social media propaganda apparatus there.

Malaysia, which does not have formal ties with Israel, has been seen as sympathetic to the Palestinians. ..."

Report: Mossad tried abducting Hamas operatives in Malaysia - Israel News - The Jerusalem Post The abduction-style capture of the Gazan man, whose ties to Hamas were subject to a Mossad investigation, ended in the arrest of the Mossad agents.

British MI6 makes a wild claim, says Putin could be dead

Don't you wish it was true? However, I suspect if Putin the Terrible was indeed dead, his successors would have already tried to end the war of aggression against the Ukraine.

How Russia Subverts The West

Posted: 8/28/2017

From The CIA To The KGB

Always keep in mind Vladimir Putin is a former KGB officer and former director of the successor organisation of the KGB, i.e. the FSB.

A systematic imbalance: Thanks to freedom of speech and democracy, we have learnt much more about the activities and operations of Western foreign intelligence services like the CIA or the British MI6 (now SIS), then we have learnt about the foreign intelligence services of closed dictatorships like former USSR or today’s Russia, China, or Iran.

Or has the West learnt more about its own foreign intelligence services because of deliberate operations of the intelligence services of those dictatorships to undermine the West?

Anyway, whatever covert operations or activities the CIA or other Western intelligence services were able to undertake, we can safely assume that the KGB or other intelligence services run by dictatorships are very comparable if not worse, because they do not have to fear much scrutiny by political parties or opponents.

The Extent Of Subversion In The West

Perpetrated By Dictatorial Foreign Intelligence Services

Is Probably Largely Underestimated

There are a number of reasons for this systematic underestimation:

1. Open societies allow foreign intelligence services to operate much easier and in many different ways
2. For instance, financial support by foreign intelligence services to groups or individuals to to foment public discord is often very difficult to uncover
3. Foreign intelligence services are much more ruthless when it comes to cover up (including murder, harm to family members) etc.
4. Defectors of these foreign intelligence services are fairly rare, or are eliminated, or they need so much protection that the public in the West will not learn about their disclosures for long times (decades)
5. The hands of Western counterintelligence services are for good reasons severely tied behind their backs when it comes to investigate, prevent, or uncover operations or activities by foreign intelligence services directed at political activists or activist groups. Not to mention that Western counterintelligence services are already quite busy to prevent espionage and potential sabotage operations

Two Recent Articles About Russia’s Involvement With U.S. Environmentalist Groups

For sake of brevity, I will not discuss these two articles here.

Lawmakers Cite Evidence Russia ‘Colludes’ With US Green Groups to Block Fracking

CIA Veteran Sees Russian Connection to 2 Groups Opposing Fracking, Pipelines