Computer security company McAfee has issued a report detailing a five-year hacking scheme that targeted countries, companies and numerous organizations.

McAfee says there were more than 70 intrusions from the same source over the past five years, including four in Canada.

The earliest, in July 2008, targeted an unidentified Canadian information technology company for four months, then the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency was infiltrated for 14 months starting in August 2009.

The agency disputes that, saying it "has yet to be convinced" that it was one of the Canadian operations targeted. It confirms a security breach of its email servers in February 2008, but says it has no evidence of other violations since.

McAfee says two unidentified Canadian government agencies were targeted — the first in October 2009 for six months and the second in January 2010 for one month.

Speaking to Rosemary Barton on Power & Politics on CBC News Network, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews noted that the government has allocated some $90 million to detect and fight cybercrime.

"Attacks on secure cyber facilities happen literally on a daily basis. So I'm not quite sure what [the report's author] means when he says 72 [intrusions.] Because if there were only 72 I'd be very surprised. They actually go on on a continuous basis, not only against the government of Canada but against provincial governments and indeed the private sector."

Toews noted that Canada has worked closely with the United States on this issue.

"The question of cyberattacks is not new and it's an ongoing concern," said Liberal MP Geoff Regan, critic for industry and consumer affairs.

"The question is what steps are being taken by government to make sure this doesn't happen. If we find that this latest incident has resulted in more of that information being compromised, then I think the government has some answers to give," said Regan, who stressed that he had not yet read the McAfee report.

The report goes on to say the governments of the U.S., Taiwan, India, South Korea and Vietnam were also on the target list, along with the IOC, the United Nations and an array of companies.

When asked who may be responsible for recent Canadian breaches, Toews wouldn't specifically point a finger.

"I'm not going to mention any specific country, but I can assure you that there are states who are very interested in either technological information or in fact security information," Toews told the CBC. "Hackers who are sometimes acting independently, [or] sometimes on behalf of various states, or state-sponsored, are very active on a continuous basis."

"We are getting better at detecting these," Toews maintained, while not offering any specifics as to what mechanisms the government uses. "Unfortunately as technology advances so do the hackers' abilities, so it's a constant struggle."

The report author, Dmitri Alperovitch, says most victims have long since addressed the infections and the report is meant to reinforce the fact that anyone can fall prey to intrusions.

David Skillicorn, a Queen’s University School of Computing professor and computer security expert, says people need to realize that the internet isn’t as secure as they may think. He believes the McAfee report is based on reliable sources and is likely accurate.

“Everyone thinks they are in a nice neighborhood, but when you are on the internet, it’s like you are walking down the darkest streets of the world," said Skillicorn. "If you are on the internet, you are everywhere. There are billions and billions of people with access to the internet and some of them are really bad people who will hack into your system and steal important data."

McAfee has dubbed the scheme Operation Shady RAT, with RAT being a common acronym in the computer industry meaning Remote Access Tool.

With files from the CBC