Francois Guay
Founder, Canadian Cybersecurity Network
Canada is facing a critical shortage in cybersecurity talent and a rapidly evolving threat landscape. Discover how the Canadian Cybersecurity Network (CCN) is addressing these challenges and strengthening national resilience through education, collaboration, and innovation.
What key challenges and gaps in Canada’s cybersecurity landscape led you to start the Canadian Cybersecurity Network, and how have these issues progressed?
Canada faces a 25,000-person shortage in cybersecurity talent, with 43% of Canadian companies citing a lack of skilled professionals as a major challenge. Lack of hands-on cybersecurity training for students as well as complex certification requirements has made this employment gap larger. This, coupled with fragmented collaboration between industry, government, and academia, led to the founding of CCN. Through partnerships and programs, CCN has helped fill these gaps, making notable progress, but challenges remain.
What role does the Canadian Cybersecurity Network play in supporting cybersecurity professionals and businesses in Canada?
The Canadian Cybersecurity Network (CCN) connects 42,000 members and reaches nearly 950,000 professionals through its initiatives. It offers a range of services, from mentoring, coaching, and job matching to webinars on the latest cybersecurity trends as well as accelerating market reach for businesses. CCN strengthens the Canadian ecosystem by enabling professionals and businesses to access resources and talent vital for their security operations.
How does the Canadian Cybersecurity Network foster collaboration between its members, and what specific barriers to collaboration are you working to overcome? Does the CCN have any upcoming initiatives to help its members get connected?
CCN fosters collaboration through monthly webinars, Spotlight Exchanges, and partnerships with over 25 universities and numerous businesses, government and technology and diversity associations across Canada. Barriers include resource limitations, lack of collaboration, funding and geographic challenges. CCN is scaling its CyberGuardians volunteer program and launching networking events aimed at fostering collaboration, with 5 new initiatives planned in the coming year.
What are the biggest challenges you believe Canadian businesses will face in the next five years when it comes to cybersecurity and how can CCN help address them?
Canadian businesses will face threats like ransomware which saw a 150% increase globally in 2022. These are being accelerated by AI technology availability. Canada needs to accelerate the pace of change and adoption as we cannot take years to develop necessary policies, guidelines, or national cybersecurity certifications. Cyber criminals are moving fast, we must match their speed to combat the challenges we face. Talent cybersecurity shortages will also continue unless we can ratchet up our efforts. CCN aims to address these challenges by growing its talent pool and collaborating with government and industry leaders to create resilient business practices. Through its programs, CCN is set to significantly improve national cybersecurity preparedness.
Learn more at canadiancybersecuritynetwork.com.
