A sign for the Government of Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) outside its headquarters in Ottawa in a file photo. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A pro-Russian hacktivist group gained unauthorized access to a Quebec municipality’s water treatment plant, giving it the ability to manipulate several core functions, according to a new report from Canada’s top cyber agency.
The cyber incident was among several disclosed in the annual report of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) released on June 29, which also discussed offensive cyberattacks the CSE wages against fentanyl precursor traffickers.
CSE, Canada’s agency responsible for signals intelligence and cyber defence, says in the report that the hacktivist group NoName—which is supported by Moscow—was able to access the Quebec municipality’s water treatment plant, which gave it the ability to control pumps, chlorine dosing, pressure settings, and alert systems.
The report said that cybersecurity organization CSIRTAmericas detected the breach and notified CSE, and its Cyber Centre then worked with partners to neutralize the threat.
NoName also launched a distributed denial-of-service attack against several government websites in Quebec back in September 2023. The CSE’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security warned in a November 2025 report that hackers were targeting Canada’s water systems, and that they could launch attacks in “times of crisis or conflict between states.” The authority said that in the event of conflict, hackers could cause water tanks to overflow or change the chemical balance of water treatment processes.
The CSE report said that throughout 2025, it detected over 3,200 cyber incidents that either impacted federal government organizations or critical infrastructure sectors involving energy, critical minerals, and water. The security agency said it worked with partners to provide technical assessments, mitigation support, and advice for containing the threats.
It also warned that state-sponsored actors are becoming “more aggressive and are moving beyond traditional espionage to conduct more disruptive activities.” It listed Russia and China as Canada’s main cyber adversaries.
The report said that CSE’s intelligence and reporting helped Canada’s allies to enforce sanctions against Russia, inform Canadian and allied efforts to counter Russian disinformation efforts, and identify cyber threats from Russian and pro-Russian organizations. It also said the CSE supports efforts to identify and counter Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage.
The report noted that Russia and China are showing increased interest in Canada’s Arctic region, which poses risks to Canadian sovereignty.
“These challenges are increasingly complex, extending beyond traditional military and cyber threats to include economic and influence-related activities,” the report said.
Fentanyl Network
The report also revealed that the CSE deployed offensive and defensive operations to counter a network of fentanyl precursor traffickers that sought to broker the purchase and sale of chemicals used to synthesize the substances.
The spy agency collected foreign intelligence on the group to “better understand the threat to Canada” and then launched a cyber operation that “disrupted and diminished” the group’s work.
CSE said fentanyl and other illicit drugs have been having a “direct and devastating impact on Canadians,” and the agency is seeking to save lives and reduce harm. “We have strengthened our capacity to deliver timely, actionable intelligence on foreign criminal actors involved in the trafficking of fentanyl, other illicit drugs, and their precursors across North America,” CSE said in the report. In February 2025, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada would appoint a fentanyl czar—later naming former RCMP deputy commissioner Kevin Brosseau to the role—as part of a package of border security measures aimed at securing a 30-day pause in U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports and 10 percent tariffs on Canadian energy products.
Trump had threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico in response to fentanyl coming over the U.S. border from the two countries, and ultimately imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
