A cyber strategy for Canada

Source: Danny Bradbury, SC Magazine.

At a recent technical forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, security experts gathered to talk shop. The event usually draws headlines. This March, it was Dragos Ruiu who captured the media attention when he said that Canada was ill-prepared for a cyberattack that could devastate its infrastructure. A 17-year-old could launch such an attack, he said, adding that the Canadian government needs to put more thought into its cybersecurity strategy.

“There’s been a cybersecurity strategy promised now for years, without it having come to fruition,” agrees Rafal Rohozinski, CEO of SecDev, an Ottawa-based company focused on security research. Rohozinski’s organization partners with the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, and produced “Tracking GhostNet” and “Shadows in the Cloud,” two investigations into cyberespionage rings appearing to originate in Asia.

His frustration seems warranted. There has been no cohesive strategy to date, although there have been plenty of half-hearted efforts. In 2004, the Canadian government earmarked around $700 million for a concerted national security effort, but only $5 million went into a workforce to address cybersecurity issues.