TEMPLE RISK ADVISORY
Corporate Intelligence,
Counterintelligence, Investigations
Specialized Defence & National-Security Corporate Practice
Ottawa | Canada | International
specialised practice
DEFENCE & NATIONAL SECURITY
Corporate counterintelligence, insider-threat and strategic intelligence services for Canadian and NATO-aligned defence enterprises.
Led from Ottawa, at the centre of Canada’s defence, intelligence and procurement community, and international in scope.
BUILT FOR A PARTICULAR KIND OF COMPANY
The practice exists to identify, disrupt and defeat that effort before it becomes a loss of technology, of contracts or of national capability.
Temple Rubicon Advisory’s Defence and National-Security Corporate Specialty Practice exists for the defence prime, the specialized subcontractor, the dual-use technology developer,
the defence start-up and the strategic research organization.
What these companies share is that their products, people and partnerships are commercial assets while also forming part of the defence and security capability of Canada and its allies.
The practice brings HUMINT-led counterintelligence, intelligence-grade investigation and doctoral-level behavioural science to bear on one question: how a hostile intelligence service, a state-directed competitor or a compromised insider would go about acquiring what your enterprise has built.
THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT
A larger defence industrial base is a larger intelligence target.
Canada and its NATO allies have committed to a sustained expansion of defence spending, industrial capacity and advanced-technology development, and the Canadian defence industrial base is growing in scale, sophistication and strategic importance as a result. Every new program, contract, research partnership, facility and cleared employee advances national capability. Each also presents a foreign intelligence service with a new opportunity for collection. The growth of the defence enterprise and the growth of its exposure are therefore the same phenomenon viewed from opposite sides.
Canada’s intelligence service, CSIS, has repeatedly warned that hostile states treat Canadian industry, and defence and advanced-technology firms in particular, as priority targets for espionage, covert influence and illicit technology acquisition.
Temple Rubicon’s specialty practice is built to meet that reality directly, and to meet it with a counterintelligence discipline rather than a compliance checklist.
A FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE DOES NOT SEE
A COMPANY
THE ADVERSARY’S VIEW
It sees a set of collection requirements, and behind each requirement, a set of people who might satisfy it.
04 Access to people
The engineers, program managers, executives and researchers who
hold that knowledge.
05 One person inside
Whose ambition, grievance, financial pressure, divided loyalty or simple
misplaced trust can be turned into sustained access.
01 Technical data
Source code, designs and test results that would let its own industry
skip years of research.
02 Program information
What Canada and its allies are building, in what numbers and to what
specifications.
03 Commercial insight
Bids, pricing, teaming arrangements and supply chains that would let it
undercut, displace or quietly penetrate a program.
Temple Rubicon begins by reconstructing this adversarial view of the client enterprise. We identify what is most worth taking, who is most likely to be approached, and through which channels — so that protection is concentrated where the adversary will actually concentrate its effort, rather than spread thinly across everything.
THE METHODS USED AGAINST DEFENCE COMPANIES
WHAT WE ENCOUNTER
Operations mounted against defence enterprises today are patient, deniable and overwhelmingly human in character, even when a digital channel carries them.
Cultivation
Engineers and researchers approached through fabricated recruiters, consultancy offers, paid speaking and advisory invitations, and online professional networking. These relationships gradually shift from the professional to the transactional.
Conference elicitation
At trade shows and industry events, including those held in Ottawa and at major international defence exhibitions, where knowledgeable staff are most relaxed and most accessible.
Academic channels
Talent-recruitment programs, academic collaborations and joint research arrangements that function as structured channels for knowledge transfer.
Investment overtures
Acquisition and joint-venture approaches designed to acquire access, board influence or technology rather than financial return.
Technical collection
Against boardrooms, program offices, bid rooms, travelling executives and temporary meeting venues.
Supply-chain penetration
Through subcontractors, component suppliers and service providers whose security falls far short of the prime contractor’s.
Personal vulnerability
Financial difficulty, family pressure, grievance, compromising relationships and ties to a country of origin that a hostile service may seek to use as leverage.
Insider sabotage and theft
By people already cleared and trusted — the most damaging category of all, precisely because the organization has already certified the individual’s reliability.
Our practice is organized around recognizing, investigating and defeating each of these pathways.
COMPLIANCE IS THE FLOOR, NOT THE CEILING
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE WITHIN THE REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Defence and national-security companies in Canada operate within a demanding security and regulatory environment:
Controlled Goods Program
Contract Security Program & clearances
Export and Import Permits Act
CMMC
Investment Canada Act - National Security
ITAR
Federal research-security framework
NATO security regimes
Recent federal legislation has also strengthened Canada’s tools against foreign interference, expanding the ability of the national intelligence service to share threat information with the private sector — which places a correspondingly greater expectation on companies to be capable of receiving, understanding and acting on it.
These regimes establish essential baselines. They were not designed to detect a determined intelligence operation directed against a specific company, program or person. Our work complements and reinforces compliance obligations rather than duplicating them.
We help security officers, counsel and executives move beyond whether they are compliant to the harder question of whether they are being targeted - and what they will do about it if they are. Where regulatory or legal interpretation is required, we work alongside the client’s counsel rather than in place of it.
THE SPECIALTY PRACTICE
CAPABILITIES TAILORED TO THE DEFENCE ENTERPRISE
Defence Enterprise Counterintelligence Assessment
A comprehensive assessment of the enterprise as a hostile service would see it, covering the company’s most sensitive technologies, programs and data, and its cleared and uncleared human access points. It examines executive and key-personnel exposure, international and research relationships, and supply chain and ownership structure, and looks for indicators that targeting may already be under way. The result is a prioritized, board-ready picture of where the enterprise is most exposed and which measures would most effectively reduce that exposure.
Trade Show, Conference and International Travel Counterintelligence
We prepare executives, engineers and business-development staff for the settings in which elicitation and cultivation are most common, through defensive briefings, counter-elicitation training and travel-specific threat guidance. We then debrief them afterward, so that approaches, unusual questions and suspicious contacts are captured, assessed and, where appropriate, referred to Canadian authorities rather than forgotten.
Defence Supply-Chain Counterintelligence
We assess and investigate the subcontractors, suppliers and service providers through which an adversary may seek indirect access to a prime contractor or program, identifying hidden ownership, foreign influence, security weaknesses and suspicious conduct at the tiers where oversight is thinnest and exposure is often greatest.
Executive and Key-Personnel Counterintelligence Vetting
Intelligence-grade vetting of executives, directors, program leaders, senior engineers, advisers and prospective hires whose access or authority makes them priority targets. Through extensive OSINT and SOCMINT, link and network analysis, financial and corporate-registry research, reputational inquiry and behavioural assessment, it identifies undisclosed foreign affiliations, conflicts of interest, vulnerabilities to coercion or influence, and patterns of deception.
Surveillance, Countersurveillance and Undercover Operations
Where an investigation requires it, and where the work is lawful, proportionate and warranted, we deploy experienced surveillance and countersurveillance teams and embedded undercover operatives to confirm or refute suspected meetings and relationships, detect hostile surveillance of executives and facilities, and observe from the inside conduct that cannot be seen from the outside. All such work is conducted within Canadian privacy law, the Criminal Code and the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, without any impersonation of law enforcement or government authority, and to a standard that can be relied upon in employment, civil or referral proceedings.
Insider-Threat Programs for the Cleared and Uncleared Workforce
We design, strengthen and support insider-threat programs built specifically for defence environments, integrating security, human resources, legal, cybersecurity and executive leadership, and informed by forensic-operational behavioural science. They are built to recognize the psychological and behavioural pathways that precede betrayal, not merely its technical footprint. When a concern emerges, we investigate with the discretion, evidentiary discipline and fairness that a cleared workforce and its employer both require.
Advanced Intelligence Interviewing
Sensitive witness, subject and debriefing interviews using evidence-based, non-coercive intelligence and investigative interviewing methods, informed by doctoral-level assessment of verbal, behavioural and paralinguistic indicators of deception. They are designed to produce reliable information and to withstand the scrutiny of counsel, tribunals and security authorities.
Critical Program and Technology Protection
For each high-value program or technology, we identify the specific information whose loss would do the greatest damage, map everyone and everything with access to it, and design layered human, procedural and technical protection proportionate to its value — from the engineering floor to the bid room, across the full life of the program.
Foreign Investment, Ownership and Partnership Due Diligence
Counterintelligence due diligence on investors, acquirers, joint-venture partners, teaming partners, research collaborators and licensees, to identify concealed beneficial ownership, state direction or influence, affiliations of concern and relationships that could expose controlled technology or sensitive data. This supports sound decisions by boards and counsel, particularly where transactions may attract national-security review.
Hostile Approach Response
When an employee reports an approach by a person or entity of concern, we help the organization assess it, debrief the individual and preserve its intelligence value. Where the matter falls within the mandate of Canadian authorities, we support an appropriate and coordinated response, protecting both the employee and the company.
Research Collaboration and Dual-Use Technology Security
For companies and laboratories working with universities, government research bodies and international partners, we assess research relationships, sponsors and affiliations against the realities of state-directed technology acquisition, then help design collaboration practices that preserve scientific openness while protecting sensitive and dual-use knowledge.
Leak Investigations and Controlled-Information Operations
When program, bid or technical information is surfacing where it should not, we combine access and opportunity analysis, behavioural assessment, discreet interviewing and controlled-information operations — uniquely marked documents and content variations that trace the disclosure to its origin quickly and quietly, without broad internal inquiries that alert the person responsible.
Technical Surveillance Counter-Measures
TSCM inspections of program offices, boardrooms, bid and proposal rooms, executive offices and residences, vehicles, and hotel and temporary meeting venues, using radio-frequency spectrum analysis, non-linear junction detection, thermal imaging, physical inspection and analysis of wired, wireless and Bluetooth environments. We schedule them around competitive bids, negotiations, board meetings and program reviews, and advise on secure-meeting practices and device discipline that preserve the protection between sweeps.
ACROSS THE FULL DEFENCE PROGRAM LIFECYCLE
EXPOSURE RISES AND FALLS WITH THE PROGRAM
Exposure in the defence sector is not constant; it rises and falls with the life of a program, and so does our support.
01
Pursuit & Bid
When the stakes are competitive advantage and the confidentiality of pricing, teaming and technical approach, we protect bid information and proposal teams.
02
Research & Testing
We protect designs, data and the people who hold them.
03
Production & Delivery
We extend protection across facilities, workforces and supply chains.
04
Export & Cooperation
We address travel, foreign partners and the diversion of controlled technology.
05
M&A & investment
Counterintelligence due diligence that determines who will ultimately control the enterprise and its capabilities.
Throughout, our aim is that counterintelligence becomes part of how the enterprise does business rather than something it reaches for only after a loss.
BEYOND DEFENCE
FOR EVERY STRATEGICALLY VALUABLE CORPORATION
Although this practice is built for defence and national-security enterprises, the threats it addresses are not confined to them. The techniques foreign services perfect against defence companies are used just as readily elsewhere.
Pharmaceuticals and life sciences
Energy and critical minerals
Advanced manufacturing and technology
Financial services
Telecommunications
Enterprises engaged in major transactions or litigation
Competitors, criminal organizations and opportunistic insiders use the same methods whenever the prize is valuable enough. Corporations outside the defence sector are often more exposed than defence firms, because they lack the security culture, clearance regimes and government relationships that defence companies take for granted.
Temple Rubicon therefore makes the full capability of this specialty practice available to any corporation facing corporate espionage, trade-secret theft, insider compromise, executive targeting, boardroom eavesdropping or covert influence — including counterintelligence assessment, insider-threat investigation, executive vetting, TSCM, surveillance and countersurveillance, leak investigation and intelligence interviewing.
WHO THE PRACTICE SERVES
Defence prime contractors and their Canadian subsidiaries
Tier-one and specialized subcontractors
Aerospace and defence-technology manufacturers
Dual-use and national-security technology developers
Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems
Space and satellite systems
Secure communications
Quantum and advanced computing
Defence start-ups and scale-ups entering the market
Strategic research and development organizations
Critical and strategic technology enterprises
The law firms, boards and investors who advise, govern and finance them
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT PROCEEDS
FOUR STAGES, USUALLY THROUGH COUNSEL
Engagements are frequently initiated and directed through General Counsel or external counsel, which helps protect confidentiality and may support privilege where appropriate.
01
Confidential scoping conversation
We establish the concern, the stakes and the legal and governance constraints.
02
Scoped assessment or investigation
Carried out under a documented plan with defined objectives, methods and legal safeguards.
03
Operational phase, where warranted
Any operational work — surveillance, TSCM, undercover deployment or interviewing — is authorized at the appropriate level of the organization.
04
Reporting and follow-through
We report in writing and in person to the board, the chief executive or counsel, in a form that is candid, evidence-based and actionable, and remain available to support remediation, program design, litigation or referral to authorities.
WHY TEMPLE RUBICON
SMALL BY DESIGN,
SENIOR BY NECESSITY
Few private firms can bring genuine intelligence and counterintelligence experience to the defence enterprise. Fewer still combine it with a licensed investigative capability and with doctoral-level expertise in forensic-operational behavioural science, intelligence studies, law, forensic accounting and technical intelligence. Temple Rubicon was built to do exactly that.
Our operational and analytical staff have served in national intelligence and counterintelligence organizations, military intelligence and specialized police investigative units. They understand the defence and security community from
he inside - its obligations, its culture, its vocabulary and its relationships with government. Because we are small by design and senior by necessity, the people who scope an engagement are the people who carry it out. The advice a board receives is direct, discreet and grounded in how intelligence services actually operate against companies like theirs.
Temple Rubicon Advisory is a private corporate intelligence, counterintelligence and special investigations firm, licensed by the Government of Ontario under the Private Security and Investigative Services Act. It does not represent, act on behalf of, or claim the authority of any government or intelligence service. All of our work is conducted in strict compliance with applicable law, including the Criminal Code and Canadian privacy legislation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is defence industry counterintelligence?
The discipline of identifying, investigating and defeating efforts by foreign intelligence services, state-directed competitors and compromised insiders to acquire a defence company’s technology, program information, bids or people. It goes beyond security compliance by focusing on how a specific adversary would target a specific company, and on the human pathways through which that targeting usually succeeds.
Can Temple Rubicon conduct counterintelligence due diligence on a foreign investor or acquirer?
Yes. We conduct counterintelligence due diligence on investors, acquirers, joint-venture and teaming partners, research collaborators and suppliers. This work identifies concealed beneficial ownership, state direction or influence, and relationships that could expose controlled technology or sensitive data, and it supports board and counsel decisions on transactions that may attract national-security review.
Is compliance with the Controlled Goods Program and clearance requirements enough?
These programs establish essential baselines for controlling access to sensitive goods, information and facilities, but they are not designed to detect a determined intelligence operation directed at a particular company, program or employee. Counterintelligence complements compliance by identifying who is being targeted, how, and whether an operation is already under way.
Does Temple Rubicon conduct TSCM sweeps for defence companies in Ottawa?
Yes. We conduct technical surveillance counter-measures inspections of program offices, boardrooms, bid rooms, executive offices, residences, vehicles and temporary meeting venues in Ottawa, across Canada and internationally. These inspections are often scheduled around competitive bids, negotiations and board meetings.
How do foreign intelligence services target defence employees?
Commonly through fabricated recruiters, consulting and advisory offers, and conference and trade-show elicitation. They also use academic and research collaborations, investment and partnership overtures, and the exploitation of financial, personal or family vulnerabilities. These approaches often develop slowly, from apparently legitimate professional contact to requests for increasingly sensitive information.
Does Temple Rubicon work with companies outside the defence sector?
Yes. The specialty practice is built for defence and national-security enterprises, but its full range of corporate counterintelligence services is available to any corporation facing espionage, trade-secret theft, insider compromise, executive targeting or covert influence — including assessment, insider-threat investigation, executive vetting, TSCM, surveillance and intelligence interviewing.
Why do defence start-ups and small subcontractors need counterintelligence support?
Smaller defence companies and start-ups often hold highly valuable technology while lacking the security staff, clearance experience and government relationships of large primes. This makes them attractive and comparatively easy targets. They are also frequently targeted as indirect routes into the larger programs and prime contractors they supply.
Is Temple Rubicon a government agency?
No. Temple Rubicon Advisory is a private corporate intelligence, counterintelligence and special investigations firm headquartered in Ottawa and licensed by the Government of Ontario as a private investigation firm. It does not represent or act on behalf of any government or intelligence service, although it supports appropriate referral to Canadian authorities where a matter falls within their mandate.
Protect the capability before it becomes someone else’s.
The technology, programs and people of a defence enterprise are the product of years of investment and national effort, and they are precisely what a hostile intelligence service has been tasked to acquire. We welcome a private and confidential conversation with chief executives, directors, General Counsel and security leaders of defence and national-security companies, and of any corporation whose capabilities have become a target, who wish to know whether they are being targeted and how to make themselves a harder target.
Your inquiry is confidential and will be assessed by our principal consultants. If you suspect that your premises or communications may be compromised, please contact us from a device and location outside your organization.
temple-rubicon@proton.me · (613) 889-1720