Global Mercury, as Canada’s $477 million share of the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS)
network, is to be known, will be immediately activated when a memorandum of understanding between the Department of National Defence and the U.S. air force is signed within the next few weeks.
"Our global security interests are not all protected by planes, ships and tanks. Some of the greatest threats are invisible, but real," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said after a visit to the Afghan capital to meet senior Afghan and NATO officials and some of the nearly 1,000 Canadian soldiers that began training Afghan security forces earlier this year as Ottawa’s 64-month combat mission in Kandahar ended.
Attempts by foreign governments to penetrate military and other government computer systems and those run by Canadian businesses were occurring "on an almost daily basis," according to a senior DND source.
MacKay did not name which countries Canada suspected of cyber attacks. However, it is widely believed that Russia and China are the leaders in this rapidly growing form of military and commercial espionage against the West.
"This is part of Canada’s effort to protect crucial information that we and commercial interests possess that have an effect on the economy," the minister said. "Because of where it is coming from, that’s why we are investing. We are spending a great deal of time studying how to protect our country against cyber attacks."
WGS was launched by the U.S. in 2007. When completed in 2018, the joint American-Australian initiative will have nine communications satellites each capable of handling massive amounts of bandwidth transmitting and exchanging secure data.
Cyber warfare was raised six weeks ago at the first meeting between MacKay and Leon Panetta, the new American secretary of defence. Panetta has, according to Reuters, said that "cyber is the battlefield of the future."
MacKay and the former director of the CIA are to meet again later this week at the Halifax International Security Forum.
Cyber security had not yet caught the attention of many Canadians "because it does not figure prominently in people’s lives," MacKay said. "It is very futuristic to speak of the cyber threat."
Another reason Canadians were generally unaware of the high number of cyber attacks against their country was that "you don’t give opponents your playbook," he said. "Speaking publicly about it does not necessarily improve our situation. Doing something about it does."
Among the other challenges that Canada faced was how to communicate much better in the Arctic, MacKay said. Radarsat 2 network has existed for several years but was in need of further upgrades, he said, including links between satellites and underwater sonar detection systems in the North and along Canada’s coastlines. The Department of Defence announced two years ago that it was to spend $25 million on such upgrades in a program known as Polar Epsilon.
Given the vastness of the High Arctic, drones, which are another emerging technology, "will figure prominently in our surveillance," MacKay said. "But we still have to determine the right platform."
Small unarmed surveillance drones known as ScanEagles had been tested for the first time three months ago in the Far North by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Canada’s first experience with flying larger unarmed drones in Afghanistan "had been instructive," although the flying conditions in the extreme heat of South Asia were much different than those found in northern Canada, MacKay said.
"The capability of drones goes up exponentially when you arm them like a fighter jet," he said. However, he noted that Canada was "investing in the F-35 (fighter jet) to cover that capability."
There has been much debate recently in the U.S. about the legality of using attack drones against suspected insurgents. Until now Canada has never acquired armed drones. However, Public Works Canada has alerted prospective manufacturers that if a project know as JUSTAS (Joint Uninhabited Surveillance and Target Acquisition System) is approved, Ottawa could spend more than $1 billion to purchase drones including attack drones.
"We are not yet at the discussion point about whether to proceed or not," with JUSTAS, MacKay said.
The media and political opposition have hounded MacKay and Canada’s top general, Walter Natynczyk lately about the justification for some flights they have taken on military aircraft.
Brushing these sometimes personal attacks aside, MacKay said: "It doesn’t compare to the work our soldiers do each day and the stress their families are under. These are part of the trials and tribulations of public life. It pales beside the suffering of Master Corporal (Byron) Greff’s family. "
Greff was the 158th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. He was killed along with 15 Afghans, Americans and Britons when a suicide bomber struck the armoured bus that was transporting them between Afghan army and police training bases in Kabul last month.
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