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CYBERSECURITY Human values in a trusted digital space OCTOBER 25-26 PALAIS DES CONGRÈS, MONTREAL
Q&A with Minister Champagne Minister Champagne, what are the key objectives of the National Cybersecurity Consortium and its strategies to enhance Canada's cybersecurity? Our government is committed to ensuring Canada is a global leader in cyber security innovation and talent development, helping build Canadians’ trust in the digital world. That’s why the government launched the Cyber Security Innovation Network (CSIN) program to expand research and development, commercialization, and skilled cyber security talent in Canada. On February 17, 2022, the National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC) was selected to lead the CSIN in partnership with academia and industry. The key objectives of the program are to support research and development in cyber security. This will be achieved by encouraging collaboration between academia and the private sector, accelerating the commercialization of cybersecurity products, services, and processes that enter the marketplace, and diversifying, expanding, and deepening Canada’s cyber security talent pipeline. This includes the recruitment and retention of faculty, trainers, and instructors, and providing more resources for curriculum development,
training, reskilling, and upskilling of the cyber security workforce through initiatives designed and delivered in collaboration with industry partners.
How does the consortium plan to foster collaboration between government, industry, and academia to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats? The NCC works with academia, the private sector, not-for-profit sectors, and other levels of government from across Canada to support innovations that contribute to the growth of the cyber security ecosystem in Canada. Activities and outcomes include: • Addressing businesses and citizens’ growing demand for cyber security solutions which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to remote work and rapid digitization; • Supporting research and development in cyber security by encouraging collaboration between Canada’s post-secondary institutions, the private sector, and other partners in order to accelerate the development of innovative cyber security products, processes, and/or services; • Accelerating the commercialization of cyber security products, services,
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and/or processes; Diversifying, deepening, and expanding Canada’s cyber security pipeline of talent through the recruitment and retention of faculty, trainers, and instructors; Providing more resources to curriculum development, training, reskilling, and upskilling of the cyber security workforce through initiatives designed and delivered in collaboration with industry partners; and Helping to address the gap due to a shortage of skilled cyber security talent in Canada.
To learn more visit innovatingcanada.ca.
By encouraging partnerships between academia and industry, the network will help address the shortage of cyber security specialists and help foster a strong national cyber security ecosystem in Canada.
Harnessing the Power of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Good in Canada
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A conversation with BlackBerry’s Marjorie Dickman on Generative AI, Cybersecurity, and Trust.
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia Senior Director, Digital Economy, Technology & Innovation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce & Council Lead, Cyber.Right.Now.
Marjorie Dickman Chief Government Affairs & Public Policy Officer, BlackBerry
lrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director, Digital Economy, Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Cyber. Right. Now. Council Lead, interviews tech policy thought leader Marjorie Dickman, Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer at BlackBerry. They discuss one of today’s hottest topics: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia: Why is BlackBerry — a global leader in cybersecurity software — interested in generative AI? Marjorie Dickman: Generative AI gives cybersecurity experts like BlackBerry new capabilities to prevent cyberattacks. At the same time, cyber attackers can use generative AI to make cyberattacks more sophisticated and harder to detect. At BlackBerry, we’ve used AI to enable our cybersecurity software for over a decade. And now, we are developing cybersecurity use cases for generative AI to augment our cyber defense solutions.
Bahr-Gedalia: We’ve seen an explosion of interest in generative AI. Experts assert that this technology could add trillions of dollars to the global economy. Yet, many entities seem hesitant to adopt it. Why? Dickman: A recent BlackBerry survey of
2,000 IT decisionmakers found that 75 per reliable. We are participating in this effort. cent of organisations worldwide are conNotably, the development of actual regusidering bans on generative AI applications lations will take years. As with all novel in the workplace. Our research found the technology, it will be critical to strike the potential risk of data security and privacy right balance to allow generative AI to evolve to be the biggest reasons (67 per cent) for in a beneficial way for Canada, while also this hesitancy. ensuring security and privacy. That said, the many studies that highlight the Bahr-Gedalia: Bad actors transformative potential likely are using generative of generative AI are right, AI in cyberattacks against In Canada, work if this technology is impleCanada. How do we safeis underway to mented safely and securely. guard Canadians from this advance a voluntary threat? This is one of BlackBerry’s code of practice Dickman: In February 2023, key focus areas. for generative AI another BlackBerry-comBahr-Gedalia: According to help ensure it is missioned survey of global trustworthy, secure, IT decisionmakers found to KPMG, only 32 per cent and reliable. We are that most of these decisionof Canadians say they trust participating in AI, citing cybersecurity as makers believe that there this effort. their top concern. How do will be a successful cyberwe build public trust in genattack enabled by generative erative AI? AI within the year. Dickman: Trust in generative AI on a To safeguard Canadians, the nation should prioritize safety and security from grand scale will require a collaborative effort among governments, developers of the outset, especially in high-risk applicagenerative AI models, civil society — and tions, while balancing against the potential companies like BlackBerry that provide of overly prescriptive regulation that can stifle innovation. Then, Canada will be security to safeguard data, devices, and networks. strongly positioned to harness the power of In Canada, work is underway to advance generative AI for good, including using these a voluntary code of practice for generative AI new tools to protect the nation from increasto help ensure it is trustworthy, secure, and ingly complex cybersecurity attacks.
To learn more about the Canadian Chamber of Commerce‘s Cybersecurity initiatives and efforts, visit chamber.ca/ cyber-right-now. To learn more about BlackBerry’s AI driven cybersecurity solutions, visit blackberry.com/ us/en/products/ blackberrycybersecurity. This article was supported by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Publisher: Jonas Hatcher Business Development Manager: Karim Jooma Country Manager: Nina Theodorlis Production Lead: Michael Taylor Creative Lead: Kylie Armishaw Web Editor: Christina Morgan Digital Media Coordinator: Kristen Neals Digital Traffic Strategist: Karm RathodAll images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve The National Post or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com.