Canada focused on new cybersecurity strategy

Canada’s public safety minister Peter Van Loan said Ottawa is developing a new cybersecurity strategy in light of repeated incursions into the country’s key computer networks. In an interview Wednesday, Van Loan told the Ottawa Citizen computer hackers are constantly inventing new methods of infiltration as previous holes are patched. “It’s the new frontier. It’s kind of like the new arms race: there are continuing escalations,” he said. “We don’t have a day go by when there isn’t some effort by someone somewhere in the world to breach government security systems.” To combat the mounting threat, he said, the government is working on “an overall cyber-security strategy” that encompasses both public and private sectors.

Canadian security officials are working closely with U.S. counterparts since the two countries share many key computer networks, including the one that operates the North American electrical grid. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama ordered a cyber-security review — expected to completed next week — of government operations in that country.

Van Loan made his comments in an interview Wednesday, one day after the Wall Street Journal reported cyberspies from China and Russia have hacked the U.S. electrical grid. “The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” a senior intelligence official told the newspaper. “So have the Russians.”

Some experts fear computer viruses have been implanted that could be activated to disrupt the system during a war or crisis. The U.S. electrical grid is shared with Canada and problems in the United States can quickly cause trouble in this country. In August 2003, for instance, a utility company’s mistake in Ohio triggered a massive blackout that crippled cities and towns across Ontario, parts of Quebec, and eight northeastern states. Van Loan said he could not comment on the specifics of the U.S. report.