Cybersecurity has been a cause for concern globally, with hackers targeting as many online businesses and industries as possible to try and achieve their illicit aims.
There isn’t anywhere in the world that is particularly safe from these attacks, as hackers typically have no domain and continue to target as many different areas and industries as possible. Of course, there are a variety of reasons why hacking attempts take place, with financial and data-driven factors often being at play.
Canada is a country that has had to deal with its fair share of cybersecurity across many of its industries in recent times. The nation is home to business sectors that have continually proven to be lucrative in terms of the money they generate, whilst many of them handle lots of sensitive data, including healthcare, e-commerce businesses, and even entertainment mediums like the iGaming scene.
The iGaming sector is arguably one of the most attractive in the country to hackers, as there are many who continually use it as a form of entertainment. This is the same across many countries in the world, with Australia also being a prime example and perhaps one to follow for Canada. Many Down Under enjoy the pokies and table games that they can find on the available mobile casinos in Australia, therefore heightening the requirement and need for the best level of cybersecurity possible.
Canada must proactively adopt successful cybersecurity strategies, such as those implemented in Australia, not only in its iGaming sector but also across all public sectors, as suggested by reports.
Damnining figures have been reported across Canada’s public sector
According to a report published by PwC, the healthcare sector has been targeted significantly in recent years. 90+% of the attacks are financially motivated, with one attack across Toronto’s busiest hospitals forcing systems offline for numerous days, thus disrupting the care that could be given to the nation’s patients.
Of all of the cyberattacks that were experienced across Canada in 2023, 11% of them had targeted the public sector. Findings revealed the telecom and technology sector (14.1%) was the only sector to have experienced more attacks than the healthcare sector (11.9%) and the public sector.
The public sector has become a very attractive target for hackers because of three reasons that had been identified:
- The public sector holds huge amounts of data that can be extremely sensitive
- The public sector is perceived to have huge financial resources that can often be unlimited
- Cybersecurity may not always be its strongest due to a lack of investment as costs are spent elsewhere, leaving hackers to be able to find and exploit any vulnerabilities as they have a lack of specialized employees.
In addition to the reasons that have been identified, it would seem that there isn’t enough expertise or safety being implemented across the sector, either. According to the report, 64% of the breaches that were reported were because of unauthorized access. This came in the form of malware, ransomware, social engineering and the failure of having the right type of security to stop employees from obtaining information without the required level of access.
How can Canada’s public sector protect itself from cyberattacks?
Canada’s public sector should adopt several approaches to protect itself from security attacks in the future, many of them arguably very basic and easy to implement. The government recently unveiled a new cybersecurity strategy to protect information banks and computer networks across the country.
From the findings that suggest how the attacks happen in the first place, it would be a good idea to provide employees within the sector the right and proper training in order to deal with attacks. It can often be considered to be “common sense” regarding certain things as you wouldn’t necessarily do it in your personal email, but when it looks work-related, confusion can set in. Employees who are trained to identify what’s genuine and what isn’t can help to reduce the likelihood of viruses and other malware from being opened up on the network and being allowed to feed on the data that is available.
In addition to training staff, it could be a good idea for the public sector to be managed from a third party from a security point of view. By appointing a task force or an external body, attacks from the inside of the sector will be limited, while the task force will also have more control over who may and may not have access. This can limit the vulnerability of an attack, as they will know what’s happening and have the expertise to deal with it immediately.
Remaining safe is a top priority
With the amount of personal and sensitive data that they hold over the nation’s people, as well as the funds that they may have in terms of their financial resources, Canada’s public sector needs to ensure it remains as safe as possible at all times.