Bill C-26: catching up on cybersecurity, but missing out on revolutionary technologies

Canada is woefully behind the curve when it comes embracing the upside of new technological opportunities and mitigating their risks. We need to embrace, not avoid, emerging tech like blockchain and artificial intelligence to revolutionize how we secure our critical infrastructures. As the last G7 country (and one of the few G20 nations) lacking a robust regulatory framework for cybersecurity, the government is trying to take action to safeguard the nation's critical infrastructure assets. Earlier this month, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) amended Bill C-26: An Act respecting cyber security, which has trudged through Parliament since June 2022. The legislation has two primary goals: first, to prevent telecom networks in Canada from incorporating hardware from adversarial countries that could put Canadians at risk; second, to strengthen our critical infrastructure against a broad spectrum of new digital threats. To do that, the bill introduces the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act (CCSPA), which empowers the government to impose cyber security measures on sectors of the federally regulated private sector that are considered crucial to national security. This encompasses a range of sectors, including telecommunications and federally regulated transportation. It also covers energy and power systems, such as pipelines and nuclear facilities, along with banking and financial settlement processes. While establishing a baseline of cyber hygiene for those in the banking and financial sectors will be a net positive, C-26 is by no means a panacea. The latest National Cyber Threat Assessment from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security outlines how disruptive technologies are both targets and tools for cyber threat actors to enable malicious cyber threat activity, referring to digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance. There are certainly risks associated with new technologies, especially those associated with our growing and increasingly borderless digital economy. While only 0.34 per cent of all crypto transaction volume is associated with illicit activity, crypto scams and cybercrimes in general can be complex to navigate due to a variety of factors, including quickly advancing technology. We can use these quickly advancing technologies to our advantage, though. Blockchain technology is one such solution. More than just crypto; it can provide the solutions we desperately need to get ahead of criminals and contribute to securing our nation’s critical infrastructures. Blockchain, being inherently decentralized and driven by consensus, makes it naturally resistant to attacks. The development of blockchains can also be improved by using AI to identify and thwart malicious manipulation of data. For example, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the number of "high impact" cyber incidents reported by Canada's banks nearly tripled last year. Bill C-26 would allow the federal government to direct the response strategies of critical industries like banks to potential attacks. But tackling the evolving sophistication of DDoS, data breaches, and ransomware attacks requires looking to evolving technologies for solutions. Hackers exploit the existing structure of the internet to both preserve their anonymity and circumvent defenses against their attacks. Increasing the distribution of security protocols, software deployment, and database management might make targets less susceptible by dispersing weak points in cyber defences while reducing dependence on centralized trust. Ultimately, blockchain technology offers a decentralization strategy that can counter hackers more effectively and outmaneuver them at their own game. Canada needs to be bold in its utilization of the blockchain sector to solve critical problems in the cybersecurity space. One successful example involves the Calgary Police Service, which recently partnered with Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform that provides services and research to government agencies, law enforcement, financial institutions, and cybersecurity companies, to create the CPS Blockchain Investigation Team (BIT) and help them fight illicit activity. Canada needs a robust regulatory framework for cybersecurity, especially when it comes to our evolving digital economy. But this is just an initial step. Governments at all levels, law enforcement, and our critical infrastructures need to catch up and embrace new technologies like blockchain instead of resisting them, or we risk falling behind the criminals. Morva Rohani is the founding executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council (CW3), a non-profit trade association representing Canada’s blockchain and Web3 sector. The Hill Times