Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada must “be vigilant” of foreign actors targeting the country’s technology, pointing to artificial intelligence and intellectual property as potential targets.

McGuinty had been asked by a reporter what the government is doing to protect technology being stolen from competitors like China.

“That’s a very, very big question. The government has seized with this responsibility nowhere more obviously than I think in the field of artificial intelligence where Canada is becoming a major player,” he said.

...

“We’re going to have to be vigilant. We have experience with this issue of the loss of intellectual property over time, for example, of Nortel previously.”

McGuinty added: “The safeguards that we’ve got in place now are significant. Our security and intelligence organizations have more than a watching brief on these kinds of activities,” he said on Thursday, announcing over $20 million in funding towards Canada’s third defence innovation secure hub dedicated to quantum technologies.

Canadian telecom giant Nortel dominated the global fibre optics industry for years before filing for bankruptcy in 2009 and liquidating in 2017.

...

Chinese espionage and hacking has been cited as a critical factor in the company’s demise by former company employees and media reporting.

Chinese hackers are alleged to have had a wide array of access to the former telecommunications giant as far back as 2000, which included downloaded business plans, research and development reports, employee emails, among other documents.

As Nortel Networks declined, Chinese multinational technology corporation Huawei grew to become one of the more dominant telecom equipment makers.

...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm so much more worried about the US than China. Lost cause to try to scare me with Chinese corporations when the Liberals are shackling themselves to Palantir.

[–] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org -2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Chinese organizations and companies involved in these malign activities by the government in Beijing may not be such household names (in Canada) as Palantir and others, but they are nevertheless as dangerous.

Chinese espionage and political interference such as by the United Front Work Department, political and economic coercion, are well-known also in Canada, and they have long history in the country.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago

Yes and India is assassinating people who live in British Columbia too.

The USA is the only country repeatedly announcing their intention to invade British Columbia and collaborating with a secession movement in Alberta.

[–] AGM@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

The idea that we're anything like as vulnerable to Chinese entities as we are to US entities is absurd. Whose tech stack is our economy, defense, intelligence, and educational systems built on and integrated with? It's not even close.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

And you don't think America dies all of of this and more? How many countries has China invaded vs America? Everyone acts like America is the good guy but they are not. They are just as bad as China and I would say worse we just paint them with a golden sheen. The favorite thing is Chinese companies have to follow Chinese law well no shit american companies have to follow american law and Microsoft has outride said it but nobody seemed to care because America is good. Or more lilelu the west has painted themselves into a corner.