14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic eavesdropping devices have been uncovered in the complex where Canada’s Department of National Defense is planning to move its headquarters. The campus used to belong to Nortel, the major telecoms company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, it’s uncertain if the bugs have just been planted or if they remained there after the industrial espionage campaign that targeted Nortel. Last year, reports emerged that Chinese hackers had access to Nortel’s networks for almost a decade.
The presence of the bugs might determine the Department of National Defense to abandon the former Nortel campus.
Canadian intelligence officials are working with the US National Security Agency to try to determine if the eavesdropping devices were meant for Nortel or Canada’s military.
Sources have told Ottawa Citizen that the most likely scenario is that the bugs were planted as part of the espionage operation against Nortel.