Canada names India in cyberthreat list; another attempt to attack, says MEA

India on Saturday slammed Canada for naming it in the list of countries considered cyberthreat "adversaries, describing the "categorisation" as "another example" of the Canadian strategy to "attack" the country.

 

The National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026 report issued by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Canada's technical authority on cyber security, alleged that Indian state-sponsored actors "likely conduct cyber threat activity against government of Canada networks for the purpose of espionage".

 

Their senior officials have "openly confessed" that they are seeking to "manipulate global opinion against India", and as on other occasions, imputations are made "without any evidence," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters in response to queries on the issue.

 

The October 30 report includes a category 'Cyber threat from state adversaries' with China placed as the "most comprehensive cyber security threat". India is named fifth after China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. It is the first time India has been included in the list.

 

"Another category, Canada has put India into. This categorisation is as per the cyber report that they have issued. It appears to be another example of a Canadian strategy to attack India," Jaiswal said.

 

"As I mentioned earlier, their senior officials have openly confessed that they are seeking to manipulate global opinion against India, as on other occasions, imputations are made without any evidence," he said.

 

While rejecting India being bracketed in that category, the MEA spokesperson said, "You first state absurd and baseless things and then level such an accusation against us. This is absolutely not right".

 

The report, whose last edition was issued two years ago, comes amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries.

 

The relations between the two countries came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September last year of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in Khalistan extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing.

 

New Delhi rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd".

 

India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity.

 

India has expelled six Canadian diplomats and withdrawn its high commissioner Sanjay Verma and other "targeted" officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa's charges.

 

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre), part of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE), is the single unified source of expert advice, guidance, services, and support on cyber security for Canadians and Canadian organisations, the report says.

 

"India's leadership almost certainly aspires to build a modernised cyber program with domestic cyber capabilities," the report says.

 

The Canadian cyber threat report further claims, "We assess that Indian state-sponsored cyber threat actors likely conduct cyber threat activity against government of Canada networks for the purpose of espionage. We judge that official bilateral relations between Canada and India will very likely drive Indian state-sponsored cyber threat activity against Canada.