N.L. cyberattacks are 'canary in the coal mine' for Canada but going unheeded, says security expert
CBC
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
The province has been the target of numerous breaches in recent years, such as the attack on the health-care system in 2021 by Russian ransomware gang Hive.
"What happened in Newfoundland was a canary in the coal mine of the hard times ahead of us and we didn't listen," Beauceron Security co-founder David Shipley told CBC Radio's On The Go.
When international criminal gangs are allowed to cripple a health-care system, Shipley warns it sends the signal that their aggression is invited.
More recently, telecommunications giant Bell announced a subsea fibre optic cable was deliberately cut for the second time between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Shipley says these are just a sign of the times.
"The good times are over. Like the peace dividend that we yielded from the sacrifices of our great-grandfathers and grandfathers. It's expired," Shipley said.
"The world's turned nasty and mean and they will use any means possible to get an edge and upset what we fought so dearly for."
Incidents like the subsea cable have to be taken seriously and do result in economic harm, he said.
"When you start messing with these things, you're messing with Newfoundland's future. And that's the game," Shipley said.
The RCMP is investigating the subsea cable, which has Shipley questioning why it's not being handled by the military or an intelligence agency.
"It speaks to the mess with how we've organized national security in this country. And I can tell you every time there's a crisis, and even in some of the crisis simulations … the problem in Ottawa is they don't even know who should respond," he said.
Shipley also lamented the fate of Bill C-26, which would have have introduced new cybersecurity requirements for federally regulated industries and codified national security requirements for the telecommunications sector.
"It died because it had made it all the way to the Senate after two years of being stalled in Parliament just from lack of government attention and because of a typo. I kid you not, a typo," he said.
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