Canada ponders 'top secret' data cloud as allies push ahead with intelligence-sharing plans

Australia is joining the United States and the United Kingdom in developing top-secret cloud networks to exchange highly classified defence, national security and intelligence data with each other — a concept Canada has just begun to think about.

Experts say that, unless the gap is closed quickly, Canada's lack of such digital infrastructure will have a profound impact on new military hardware the federal government has committed to purchasing, such as F-35 stealth fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones and long-range P-8 surveillance planes.

The gap is also putting Canada at a disadvantage in negotiations to become part of the high-tech portion of AUKUS, the trilateral defence and technology partnership involving the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The AUKUS nations are also part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — New Zealand and Canada are the remaining partners. So three out of five countries in Canada's most important intelligence alliance are now exchanging highly classified information in secure cloud-based systems to which Canada has no access.

While Defence Minister Bill Blair acknowledged the government "has some work to do" on the problem, he insisted it's being taken seriously and said it's vital for Canada to continue holding and protecting its most sensitive data.

"I want autonomy. I want control over our data," Blair told CBC News in a recent interview.

"I don't want Canada's most sensitive data stored in another country. I want Canada to be able to control its own data and to know with confidence that it's secure."

Right now, Blair said, Canada's secret data is stored on physical servers in this country. To get a secure cloud network of its own, Canada would have to hire a major foreign tech company like Amazon to build one.

But if Canada still doesn't have that separate cloud network by the time data-generating weapons systems like the F-35s come into service, it might have to purchase access to one of those tech companies' own cloud networks — undermining the autonomy Blair says he wants to protect.

More than four years ago, Australia began moving swiftly to build its secure cloud infrastructure.

Andrew Shearer, director-general of Australia's Office of National Intelligence (ONI), revealed the existence of the project during a fireside chat with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies last December.

The secret cloud would facilitate the exchange of vast amounts of classified data among the Australian, American and British intelligence services, he said.

Australia has since gone on to sign a contract worth almost $1.9 billion Cdn with Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a subsidiary of the U.S. tech giant Amazon — to host Australia's defence, security and intelligence data.

The United Kingdom established its secret cloud in 2021, also with AWS. The Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community use both AWS and Microsoft for their high-security cloud system.