Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia
Senior Director, Digital Economy, Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Marjorie Dickman
Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer at BlackBerry
In advance of the 4th annual International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) summit being held in Washington, D.C., Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director, Digital Economy, Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce interviewed technology industry leader Marjorie Dickman, Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer at BlackBerry about the rising threat of ransomware.
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia: 2023 was a record year for cyberattacks. Is BlackBerry seeing this trend in 2024?
Marjorie Dickman: Yes. BlackBerry’s latest threat intelligence report saw an average of 11,500 malware attacks targeting our customers per day between April and June — a 53% increase over the prior three months.
This is the largest increase since we began publishing our quarterly Global Threat Intelligence Report, with ransomware attacks, specifically, spiking.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security calls ransomware “the most disruptive form of cybercrime facing Canada.” The RCMP states that almost 60% of cyber incidents reported to its National Cybercrime Coordination Centre are ransomware attacks.
Bahr-Gedalia: That is alarming. Who is most at risk of ransomware attacks?
Marjorie Dickman: No organization is immune, but there has been a stark rise in ransomware attacks against healthcare and agri-food entities. Attackers rely on the potential harm to patient safety and food security to tempt these entities to pay.
In Canada, there was a ransomware attack on SickKids in 2022 and on five hospitals in southwestern Ontario in 2023. In the U.S., a 2024 ransomware attack shut down Change Healthcare, impacting an estimated 1 in 3 Americans. Meanwhile, Canadian intelligence officials report 13 ransomware incidents against the agricultural sector in just the first half of 2024.
Bahr-Gedalia: What are governments doing to combat ransomware?
Marjorie Dickman: The U.S. and the U.K. passed cyber incident reporting laws. Canada is considering a similar law.
The U.S. Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act requires critical infrastructure (CI) entities to report cybersecurity incidents and ransomware payments. The intent being to improve collective threat awareness and motivate organizations to prioritize cybersecurity. The U.K. is taking strong action against ransomware actors, including financial sanctions.
In Canada, Parliament is poised to pass the Critical Cyber Systems Security Act. The goal is to help protect CI entities — finance, energy, telecommunications, and transportation — from cyberattacks by requiring them to implement cybersecurity plans and report incidents.
Bahr-Gedalia: Will country-by-country laws help solve the problem or is international cooperation the ultimate key to success?
Marjorie Dickman: Country-by-country laws can help. But significantly decreasing ransomware attacks requires international cooperation and a “whole-of-society” approach — leveraging expertise and tools from government, industry, and civil society.
BlackBerry, with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Cyber. Right. Now. Council, has advocated this approach for years. I delivered remarks on the subject at the B7 Summit (business counterpart to the G7) in May 2021.
Bahr-Gedalia: What initiatives make you hopeful?
Marjorie Dickman: We’re encouraged by the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI), launched in October 2021 to strengthen cross-border resilience and our collective capacity against ransomware actors. CRI is the largest international cyber partnership, and Canada is a founding member.
BlackBerry commends CRI and will continue to support international cooperation and a “whole-of-society” approach to combat ransomware.
To learn more about the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Cyber. Right. Now. Council, visit: Cyber. Right. Now. – Canadian Chamber of Commerce
