A front-line RCMP officer in Alberta has been charged as part of a national security investigation and is accused of accessing police record systems and sharing that information with the Republic of Rwanda.
It's just the latest in a string of incidents that has seen foreign actors trying to get a hold of sensitive information and one former CSIS intelligence officer warns it should spark a review of who is able to access Canada's most valuable secrets.
"What's the reason these people are accessing this information?" Neil Bisson, director of the Global Intelligence Knowledge Network, told CTV News Channel on Wednesday. "This is definitely opening up the eyes of a lot of intelligence and law enforcement organizations."
Can we keep secrets safe?
Bisson says recent breaches should spark a review within Canada's intelligence community about who's able to access secret and sensitive intelligence --- and what they're doing with the information after accessing it.
In the Calgary case, the RCMP officer is accused of accessing records described by the force as "non-top secret," and it is unclear exactly how sensitive that information may have been.
Speaking generally, Bisson told Marcia MacMillan, "There's always a certain level of trust when someone achieves… secret or top-secret clearance. More attention needs to be paid to the ways they can identify people accessing this information."
He also expects it's likely that security will tighten up as the high-profile cases have "opened a lot of eyes" within security organizations, but warns "pretty much anyone" is interested in accessing Canada's intelligence.
"We're looking at a situation here where foreign influence is coming from multiple countries that typically aren't even looked at as being a concern."
A catalyst for change?
Bisson says he still has faith in the ability of Canadian security organizations to keep the country's intelligence safe --- despite the seeming rise of bad actors trying to access secure information.
He does warn that some change is needed within Canada's security establishment – particularly among the polices that oversee who's able to access secure intelligence and most importantly what they're doing with it."
"I'm not overly concerned there is a lack of security," Bisson says. "I think this is a catalyst for the intelligence and law enforcement organizations in Canada to take a deeper look into the restrictions that they have."
