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Federal officials are 'considering very carefully' required cybercrime event reporting, according to Mendicino

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According to Canada's public safety minister, the federal government is considering establishing mandatory incident reporting for cybercrimes to better understand their prevalence domestically and how to avoid them in the future.


Mendicino stated the government is on "high alert" for cybercrime activities while speaking to the House of Commons Public Safety as well as the National Security Committee on Thursday regarding Canada's security posture against Russia.


"I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that in the current geopolitical environment in which we find ourselves, we remain on high alert for potential attacks from hostile state actors like Russia, which might manifest via cyber-attacks, through ransomware, which appear to identify potentially valuable targets to Canadian interests, such as critical infrastructure," he said.


As of now, only non-federally regulated organizations are encouraged to report cybercrime.


"I think that's something that we need to be examining, for sure; yeah, it's an option that we're evaluating very carefully," the minister replied when NDP MP Alistair MacGregor asked if Ottawa was considering making it mandatory for all sectors.


"Espionage and foreign intervention activity at levels not seen since the Cold War," the Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported in 2020.




The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and also the Communications Security Establishment both published concerns in January regarding Russian-backed cyber threat activities aimed against critical infrastructure network operators as well as their operational and information technology in Canada.


According to the report, businesses should increase organizational awareness, create a cyber-incident response strategy, and be ready to separate infrastructure components and services from the internet.


With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, these warnings have become more urgent.


On Tuesday, David Shipley, CEO of Beauceron Security, a cybersecurity start-up based in Fredericton, told the committee that some businesses are advised not to disclose cybercrime to the government because it is too time-consuming.


"Most organizations will not cooperate with the federal govt of their own volition." "They're told to minimize information sharing and disclosure by their legal and risk teams or by their insurer during accidents since collaborating with the government appears to give limited gain and a lot of danger," he added.


"This means we're missing out on essential information on Canadian attacks, and, more crucially, the core causes, as well as key lessons, aren't being learned or shared effectively."


According to him, Canada has to change the risk equation so that businesses operate on the principle of "report or face penalties."