Liberal, Tory MPs Urge Improving Alert System, Avoiding Over-Classification After Chinese Cyberattack

Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood John McKay rises on a point of order following Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 17, 2011. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Liberal and Conservative MPs who were targeted by a Chinese hacker group are calling for improved alert mechanisms and a reassessment of the culture of “over-classifying” information.

Tory MPs James Bezan and Garnett Genuis, along with Liberal MP John McKay, testified before the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on June 13. They were among 18 Canadian parliamentarians targeted by the Chinese state-backed hacker group APT31.

The FBI disclosed APT31’s attack in a U.S. indictment released in March, detailing the group’s 14-year history targeting officials, academics, journalists, companies, and critics of the Beijing regime in the United States and other countries. Also targeted were members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international cross-party group advocating for human rights and the rule of law in China.

It was only in April, however, that the MPs, all IPAC members, learned of APT31’s cyberattack from an IPAC briefing, despite the federal government receiving the FBI’s intelligence in 2022, as revealed by Mr. Genuis and Mr. McKay in an April statement.

Following the MPs’ statement, the House of Commons administration told reporters on April 30 that their risk-mitigation measures successfully prevented any attack and there were “no cybersecurity impacts” on MPs. This assertion was challenged by Mr. Genuis, who said APT31 attacked his personal email, which would be outside of the purview of the House of Commons information security team.

When testifying before the PROC on June 6, Caroline Xavier, chief of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), stated that the digital spy agency had received a report from the FBI in June 2022. The report said individuals around the world were targeted, including 19 Canadian parliamentarians. The Epoch Times confirmed this number with the CSE.

‘Over-Classification’

During the June 13 testimony, Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau asked her colleagues targeted by APT31 if they were satisfied with the CSE’s information sharing and whether “we are over-classifying things.”

“Are you ready to review both privileges, parliamentary privilege? And to what extent our privacy should be protected with respect to interference? Do you really think we need to reform this?” she asked.

In response, Mr. McKay said “over-classification” of information should be revisited, noting widespread agreement on this issue within the House of Commons Defence Committee, where he serves as chair and Mr. Bezan as vice-chair.

Mr. Genuis added: “Sharing information is a critical way of fighting foreign interference. Telling people about these attacks is ... a critical part of how we fight back against these threats.”

Mr. McKay said the two-year delay in information sharing was in part due to inadequate protocols, and called for the committee to focus on creating effective security measures.

“These attacks are massive and the FBI itself feels overwhelmed. So this committee needs, in my view, to start wrestling with our protocols; clearly, the current protocols are not acceptable,” he said, referencing a May 9 briefing that the MPs received from the FBI.

Mr. Bezan expressed the same opinion but added that the government’s culture for how information is classified and shared should also be reviewed.

“I think that when you look at the culture that exists within the government account, on how they classify information, how they share information, especially when it comes down to foreign intimidation—and this APT31 is nothing more than foreign intimidation—again, that we have to be taking new protocols in how we deal with it,” he said.

Accountability

Mr. Genuis called for transparency in governmental actions and individual accountability for decisions impacting MPs’ security.

“I don’t think we should use a discussion of systems to abstract from the fact that individuals in those systems made choices, and those choices lead to members of Parliament being more vulnerable to foreign threats,” he said.

Mr. Bezan further proposed a proactive measure to mitigate future risks. He suggested that the House of Commons or Parliament in general publish an annual report on cyberattacks and their resolutions. He said this step would “provide some accountability and also a greater understanding of the evolving cybersecurity threat that we’re in.”

Describing the attack method, Mr. McKay detailed APT31’s use of emails from the domain “nropnews.com” with fake journalist identities. This tactic, known as “pixel reconnaissance,” involves embedding a tracking pixel in a photograph or image. When the receiver opens the email, the tracking pixel can send back limited information to the sender, akin to a phishing expedition.

Mr. Genuis added that this signalled the early stages of broader potential attacks.

During a subsequent panel of the PROC meeting, Liberal MP Judy Sgro and Conservative MPs Tom Kmiec and Stephanie Kusie, who were also targeted by the Chinese hackers, testified and voiced their disappointment.

Ms. Sgro said when she first learned about the attack, “I was furious. I was livid.”

However, once the anger subsided, she expressed “a huge disappointment.” “This is not what I would have expected. But more importantly, you know, it happened, the firewall held, and because of that they felt there was no reason to tell us,” she said.

Ms. Kusie stated, “My sense of disappointment is overwhelming—the fear that consumes you when you think about the possible effects on you, your family.”