What is The Canadian Institute For Cybersecurity & Why Does It Matter?

There was a time when cybersecurity was a thing that everybody could tackle exclusively on their own terms. Those days are now far behind us. The modern enterprise threat surface is larger than ever, and hackers grow increasingly sophisticated. Amidst such a landscape, organizations like the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity are critical.   By Brad Litwin

I will not mince words - the challenges surrounding modern cybersecurity are not addressable by any one business, no matter how extensive its budget. Dealing with the sophisticated hacks, massive threat surfaces, and advanced attack vectors that have grown increasingly common of late requires a collaborative and multidisciplinary effort.

That’s precisely where the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity comes in. Based at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, the institute brings together experts and researchers from multiple fields including social sciences, business, computer science, engineering, and law. It is the first institution of its kind to take such a multidisciplinary approach to cybersecurity - and it’s all the better for it.

More importantly, one of the CIC’s core goals is to address the looming global cybersecurity talent shortage, an issue for which there is currently no end in sight.

“While information and communication technologies provide an unprecedented number of tools and applications to collect, analyze and manage this data, security and privacy remain major concerns,” reads a section on the CIC’s website. “It’s clear a new, multidisciplinary approach is needed.The CIC will work across disciplines to create and cultivate a national network of research talent from industry, the user sector, academia, and government to examine and address internet security, privacy and trust.”

Thanks in no small part to the CIC’s influence, New Brunswick has become a leader in Canadian cybersecurity. A burgeoning center of innovation and development in the field. A hub of research and collaboration. This is all well and good, but what does any of it have to do with your organization? Joining the CIC means access to support from Canada’s top cybersecurity researchers. It means an opportunity to contribute to the development of cutting-edge security innovations, and a chance to guide the future of cybersecurity in Canada.

But more importantly, the CIC itself provides a model for how all organizations should approach cybersecurity both externally and internally. You may need to take your competitors down in order to dominate the market, certainly. But when it comes to defending against hackers and cybercriminals, you’re all on the same team - or at least, you should be.

It’s possible to collaborate on cybersecurity without sharing trade secrets. It’s possible to work together against hackers without anyone gaining a competitive advantage against anyone else. It’s possible to be both competitors and allies.  That’s one takeaway from the CIC. The other involves your internal approach to cybersecurity. Just as you must encourage collaboration between your organization and its competitors, you must also enable collaboration between departments within your own organization. Cybersecurity is no longer the sole purview of the IT department - it’s everyone’s problem.You need to approach it as such within your own organization. Involve everyone in talks about the development, selection, and deployment of new security solutions. Integrate new software and platforms based as much on business needs as security needs. Foster a culture of cybersecurity, one in which everyone does their part to protect your business’s most valuable assets. 

The CIC is an important fixture in Canada’s cybersecurity landscape - not just because of the innovations it works to promote, but because of the lessons it represents. Whether your organization is based in Canada or abroad, it’s important to take those lessons to heart, and to either work with the CIC itself or a similar agency. 

About the Author: Brad Litwin is the Marketing Manager at A2 Hosting, a high-performance web hosting provider. Brad’s experience ranges from PPC management to social media management. For more great content, you can follow A2 Hosting @a2hosting on Twitter.

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