The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is aware of multiple instances when secure databases were infiltrated by criminals, potentially threatening public safety.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, manager of investigations at the internal affairs division Michel Lafleur recently revealed that the agency “has seen several serious risk situations materialize through employees’ associations with criminals.”
Lafleur and a recent CRA report detailed several instances where CRA employees involved in organized crime leaked sensitive information.
The report says that in one case, “a CRA employee became romantically involved with a biker gang member and used her access to give the gang personal information about their debtors and their lawyers.”
In another instance, an “employee involved with a biker gang used his access to provide gang members with personal information about members of the police force, for example child care locations.”
The disclosures were made after a CRA employee was recently fired after being convicted of multiple charges including impaired driving.
In 2018, CRA employee Christopher Casola pleaded guilty to breach of trust. Casola was accused of giving “unauthorized access to accounts belonging to two police officers, three individuals involved with the Hells Angels and the spouse of one of them.”
Data security has become a serious concern at multiple government agencies in recent years, with many breaches putting the public’s sensitive data at risk.
An August report slammed Public Safety Canada for multiple security issues. The primary issue was that the department does not keep track of external storage devices like USB flash drives.
Public Safety Canada oversees federal law enforcements efforts, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency.
A report released in February stated that there have been 7,992 data breaches in federal agencies since 2018, with at least 144,000 Canadians affected.
