Citizen Lab Research Assistant James Tay presented a paper at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute’s (CDAI) Graduate Student Symposium entitled Securing Canadian Cyberspace: Policy Options for Canada’s National Defence. He discussed the state of Canadian cyber security by analyzing Canada’s current cyber security strategy and its deficiencies.
Based on that, he made two policy recommendations that Canada must adopt in order to secure Canadian cyberspace. They were:
- Ottawa must cultivate a cybersecurity culture in its operations. Strengthening government technical firewalls is vital but so is paying attention to the “weakest link” the human element. Government employees need to be trained on what a targeted spear phishing email that seeks to compromise their systems looks like etc.
- Canada urgently needs a cyber foreign policy. Shoring up our domestic capabilities is important but given the global nature of the Internet and cyberthreats, securing Canadian cyberspace necessitates international action and cooperation.