Work Plan – Reviews Under Way and Planned

Commissioners use a risk-based and preventative approach to reviews. A three-year work plan is updated twice a year. Developing the work plan draws on many sources. An important one consists of regular briefings from CSE on new activities and changes to existing activities. Another is the classified annual report to the Minister of National Defence from the Chief of CSE on CSE's priorities and its legal, policy and management issues of significance.

With the exception of my review of CSE's foreign signals intelligence metadata activities (some aspects will continue in the coming year) and my review of particular foreign signals intelligence activities under ministerial authorizations, all of the reviews that were under way last year have been completed.

Reviews planned for 2014—2015 are: a focused review of CSE's information technology security (IT) metadata activities, a review of particular foreign signals intelligence activities conducted under ministerial authorization and ministerial directive; CSE's sharing of foreign signals intelligence with foreign entities; a review of a specific CSE activity in support to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) under part (c) of its mandate and section 12 of the CSIS Act; and a study of the sharing of information between the foreign signals intelligence and IT security sections within CSE.

In addition, I will conduct annual reviews of: (1) foreign signals intelligence and IT security ministerial authorizations; (2) CSE disclosures of Canadian identity information; and (3) privacy incidents and procedural errors identified by CSE and the measures subsequently taken by CSE to address them. I also plan to continue to conduct spot checks of the private communications CSE has intercepted, used and retained.