The Canadian government wants sweeping new powers, including access to confidential information, in order to “direct” how critical infrastructure operators prepare for and respond to cyberattacks.
And it wants to prohibit those companies from disclosing to the public anything about the directions issued by the federal government — including the mere existence of any orders to beef up protections.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne held a press conference to announce the details of the new legislation, which also grants the government the promised power to bar companies from using technology from firms like Huawei and ZTE.
The announcement, however, comes at a time when the government is increasingly facing questions about its secretive approach to cyber operations, cyber protections, and what duty of transparency about the country’s threat level is owed to Canadians who could bear the frontline impact of any critical infrastructure attacks.
Critical infrastructure refers to the networks, systems, services and supply chains that are paramount to Canadian national security and the country’s security interests. That can apply broadly to things like 911 phonelines, electric grids, pipeline operations, hydroelectric dams, food supplies and emergency medicine stockpiles, and the IT networks protecting critical government operations and information.
It is a broad term that encompasses the ever-shifting nature of national security, particularly in light of the increased focus on cyberattacks and ransomware targeting critical infrastructure by actors like Russia and China, or proxies working in alignment with them.
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