India-Canada row: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson on Saturday hit back at Canada after Justin Trudeau government described New Delhi a ‘cyber adversary’ amid ongoing diplomatic row.
That description was made in the National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026 which was released on Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
Pointing to the recent Canadian classification of India as a ‘cyber adversary’, alongside Russia, China, and North Korea, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal termed it as another example to "attack" India.
"This appears to be another example of a Canadian strategy to attack India. 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," Jaiswal stated.
Jaiswal stated that some Indian consular officials were recently informed by the Canadian government about the ongoing surveillance.
He also criticized Canada for attempting to justify its actions by citing technicalities, arguing that such justifications cannot excuse what he described as harassment and intimidation of Indian diplomatic personnel.
On Wednesday, the Canadian signals intelligence agency that monitors foreign-based cyber threats said New Delhi was most likely already conducting threatening cyber activity against Canadian networks for spying purposes, reported Reuters.
"As Canada and India potentially may have some tensions, it is possible that we may see India want to flex those cyber threat actions against Canadians," the report said quoting Caroline Xavier, head of the agency, known as Communications Security Establishment Canada.
— Countries that aspire to become new centres of power within the global system, such as India, are building cyber programs that present varying levels of threat to Canada.
— We assess that India’s cyber program likely leverages commercial cyber vendors to enhance its operations.
— 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.
