‘Titanic was unsinkable until it sank:’ expert warns Canada needs to improve cybersecurity

CALGARY – The company that owns Colonial Pipeline in the states paid eastern European hackers nearly $5 million to escape a cyberattack that stopped oil from flowing along the east coast.

Experts are warning Canada could be targeted by cybercriminals too, primarily because Canadian cybersecurity efforts are lagging behind the states which has seen an increase in these types of attacks.

“The Titanic was unsinkable–until it sank,” said cybersecurity expert David Shipley.

“We’re always reacting with this stuff but the consequences have been steadily increasing. We’re talking billions of dollars lost now to organized ransomware gangs that have reinvested it and it now exploded into a cyber pandemic.”

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Hackers were able to seize control of computer systems for the Colonial Pipeline, locking access and demanding a ransom to release them. Partial service was restored manually late Monday.

Shipley says Ottawa needs to up its cybersecurity game and match or out-run the Americans.

“Here’s the thing about security: it’s like that old joke about outrunning the bear that’s chasing you in the woods. You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun everybody else. The Americans just put on their running shoes.”

He says if Canada doesn’t up its cybersecurity, then it will become a target for hackers.

Earlier this week, the head of BDO Canada’s cybersecurity practice, Vivek Gupta, said hackers are more sophisticated than ever and exploiting gaps created by the shift to remote working.

He says many companies don’t take the necessary precautions until a big attack, like the one the shutdown Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. this past week, grabs their attention.

Canada’s two largest pipeline companies, TC Energy and Enbridge, say they take a proactive approach to avoid cyberattacks.

-with files from the Canadian Press