Jennifer Quaid
Executive Director, CCTX
Marc Duchesne
Chair, Board of Directors, CCTX & VP Corporate Security & Responsibility, Bell Canada
Discover the strength of Canadian businesses in the face of cyber threats, with the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) at the forefront of collaboration.
We are stronger together. It’s a common phrase used everywhere around the world. It’s especially true in cybersecurity where the criminals work together, learn from one another, and are increasingly successful. We need to do the same.
There has been a growth in the inexorable advancement of malware, the abundance of malicious bots, the growth and ease of disinformation campaigns, and now the profound impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Attackers are improving their capabilities by taking advantage of dark web forums, embracing technological advances, and adopting AI to ensure the effectiveness of their attacks. The risk to Canadian organizations of being the victim of a cyber attack is increasing. Per a 2021 Statistics Canada report, Impact of Cyber Crime on Canadian Businesses, “Just under one-fifth of Canadian businesses were impacted by cyber security incidents in 2021.” Ransomware attacks continue to plague businesses of all sizes, across all sectors. Distributed denial of service attacks continue to disrupt business operations.
Cyber attacks are a lucrative business, recovering from a cyber attack is expensive. The criminals that perpetrate them are making money. We need to do more to protect our assets and increase their cost of doing business. Cybersecurity needs a community; the challenges are big and the adversaries are strong. There is a growing recognition among the private sector, governments, and regulators that collaboration improves cyber resilience.
Supporting the overall cyber ecosystem and enabling Canadian businesses to build cyber awareness and resilience — these are fundamental to the purpose and role of the CCTX.
The Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) is Canada’s cyber collaboration forum, helping members from large and small organizations build resilience through increased awareness of the cyber threat landscape and opportunities for collaboration. Organizations can leverage diverse expertise, close knowledge gaps, and strengthen their collective defenses. Today’s interconnected digital economy is vulnerable to cyber threats which are constantly evolving and growing in sophistication. The collaborative sharing of threat intelligence empowers enterprises to proactively identify risks and stay ahead of emerging threats.
Collective intelligence ultimately enhances enterprise resilience, ensuring business continuity and safeguarding valuable assets in an ever-changing cyber landscape. Collaboration is more than sharing threat information, it is professionals sharing best practices, working together on cyber problems that are impossible to undertake within a single organization or sector, and engaging with others to improve the resilience of their supply chain, their customers, and the Canadian economy. Stronger together.
How do we stop it?
Enacting basic cyber resilience practices are the most effective defence mechanisms. Best practices include developing and exercising a cyber incident response plan, backing-up data, using multifactor authentication and applying software patches as soon as possible. Guidance to Canadians is provided by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
Support for small and medium business
Cyber attackers are indiscriminate, they will go after anyone with data that is valuable to an organization’s operation. Data does not need to have a ‘street value’, if an organization requires it to operate, it has value. Increasingly, Canada’s small and medium businesses are being affected by cyber crimes. To improve the cyber resilience of this vulnerable sector, the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) has partnered with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst. Through an investment from the Ontario government, the CCTX and the Catalyst will work together to help SMEs develop and adopt new-generation cybersecurity technology, to become more competitive and resilient. Stronger together.
“This is an exciting opportunity to help build cyber resilience across the entire supply chain, strengthening small and medium organizations, and ultimately large enterprise as well. Supporting the overall cyber ecosystem and enabling Canadian businesses to build cyber awareness and resilience — these are fundamental to the purpose and role of the CCTX,” said Marc Duchesne, Chair CCTX Board of Directors and VP Corporate Security & Responsibility, Bell Canada.
“This partnership is a unique opportunity to pool our expertise, resources and networks within the cybersecurity ecosystem to help foster a technologically advanced economy in Ontario, secured by best-in-class cybersecurity products and processes,” said Jennifer Quaid, Executive Director, CCTX.
Join the community at [email protected]. Learn more about the Canadian cybersecurity landscape at cyber.gc.ca.
