{"id":154799,"date":"2018-02-28T19:22:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T00:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=154799"},"modified":"2018-02-28T19:22:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T00:22:16","slug":"new-federal-cybersecurity-strategy-follows-overlap-lack-of-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/28\/new-federal-cybersecurity-strategy-follows-overlap-lack-of-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"New federal cybersecurity strategy follows ‘overlap, lack of clarity’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The newly announced plan for a federal cybersecurity centre aims to pull together expertise across the government under a single roof, rather than the existing \u2014 and somewhat bewildering \u2014 alphabet soup of digital protection agencies. (Photo<\/a> by Wies van Erp\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-ND 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 In the often shadowy and dangerous domain of cyberspace, the federal government wants Canadians to have a trustworthy place to turn to help stay safe online.<\/p>\n

The newly announced plan for a federal cybersecurity centre aims to pull together expertise across the government under a single roof, rather than the existing \u2014 and somewhat bewildering \u2014 alphabet soup of digital protection agencies.<\/p>\n

The move follows an internal government evaluation last fall that found confusion and frustration due to \u201coverlap and lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities\u201d between players.<\/p>\n

The centre \u2014 to be created by the experts at the federal Communications Security Establishment \u2014 is intended to flesh out a key element of a revamped cybersecurity strategy, providing practical tips for Canadians and highlighting online threats.<\/p>\n

Another goal is to offer cybersecurity guidance to small- and medium-sized businesses, which often do not have the resources or know-how to fend off hackers and other threats.<\/p>\n

The strategy, outlined in the federal budget plan, will receive $507 million over five years. It comes as headlines routinely tell of breaches exposing personal financial information and governments warn of serious threats to vital systems, including electrical grids and telecommunications networks.<\/p>\n

Six in 10 Canadians were confident they could protect themselves online as long as they had the basic information on steps to take, \u201csuggesting a need for concrete information, particularly for those less knowledgeable and confident,\u201d an Ekos Research Associates survey for Public Safety\u00a0Canada\u00a0concluded last March.<\/p>\n

The same study found that government and police agencies topped the list of most trusted sources for unbiased information about online threats.<\/p>\n

Under the federal strategy, the RCMP will set up a national cybercrime co-ordination unit to act as a hub for investigations as well as give people and businesses a place to report cybercrime incidents to police.<\/p>\n

The government hopes the efforts will bolster overall security and provide a \u201cmore rapid, co-ordinated and coherent\u201d federal response to cyberthreats, the budget plan says.<\/p>\n

Sergio Marchi, president of the Canadian Electricity Association, applauded the federal measures, saying the money and the renewed approach will make\u00a0Canada’s energy systems more secure. \u201cThis is the right focus at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, the cabinet member responsible for the Communications Security Establishment, charactized the cybersecurity initiatives Wednesday as \u201cthe early steps toward making sure that Canadians are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about bringing all the resources in our government to bear on one problem,\u201d Sajjan said. \u201cAnd instead of duplicating resources in multiple departments, this is about bringing departments together to make sure we have the right expertise and … support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greta Bossenmaier, head of the CSE, has warned that hackers will one day be able to crack the encryption people rely on for secure online banking and shopping. She says the massive processing power of quantum computing \u2014 which would crunch data much faster than today’s systems \u2014 could open the door to breaking trusted internet protections.<\/p>\n

Sajjan said Wednesday that additional federal budget investments in science will \u201callow us to make sure that we develop our quantum computing expertise\u201d as well as artificial intelligence capabilities in the name of protecting Canadians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 In the often shadowy and dangerous domain of cyberspace, the federal government wants Canadians to have a trustworthy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":154800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[2504,47432],"class_list":["post-154799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-canadians","tag-federal-cybersecurity","mauthors-jim-bronskill","mauthors-lee-berthiaume","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}