(Quebec) Hydro-Quebec and the Quebec government have tightened their computer security measures in the face of the “serious” threat of a Russian cyberattack. Hackers from Russia could target Quebec in order to ultimately attack the United States, according to the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire.
Updated yesterday at 8:28 p.m.
During the study of the budgetary appropriations of his department in the National Assembly on Tuesday, he argued that there was a risk that we “attack the entire northeastern United States by Quebec”.
“Unfortunately, too many organizations are like, ‘Let’s see if the Russians are going to be interested in me.’ […] Just imagine if we attacked Hydro-Quebec and if we managed to stop the production of electricity [alors qu’]Americans are supplied with electricity. If you want to attack the Americans, we are a great transmission belt,” explained the minister, while saying that he does not want to “give anyone ideas”.
Liberal MP Gregory Kelley then questioned him about concerns raised by the United States since the start of the war in Ukraine about the possibility of Russian cyberattacks against them and other countries that support President Volodymyr Zelensky. The White House has called on states and companies to tighten their security measures, he said.
According to Éric Caire, the Quebec government “takes the situation very seriously”. This is also the case at Hydro-Québec.
“We have increased the number of resources and our monitoring level specifically for this threat. From the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, this risk has been integrated into our daily monitoring in order to adapt to it in real time”, indicated to The Press its head of media relations and government affairs, Philippe Archambault.
More than 200 people oversee cybersecurity for the Crown corporation. No direct threat to her has been detected since the start of the Russian invasion.
Hydro-Québec says it is “in constant contact with government organizations such as the Canadian Center for Cybersecurity” “and indirectly with [l’Agence américaine de cyberdéfense] and certain American police forces such as the FBI”.
For its part, Quebec has “identified potential targets for a cyberattack”, such as electrical distribution networks.
Behind the scenes, there is talk of the risk of a remote control of the navigation system of a cargo ship on the St. Lawrence River. Pirates could thus succeed in blocking the sea route, breaking supply chains from Canada and the United States.
According to Éric Caire, additional resources have been allocated to raise security levels in the government. His department received a $100 million envelope, under Eric Girard’s budget tabled last month, intended “exclusively for cybersecurity”, he added.
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Eric Cairo
Quebec is also concerned about the possibility of a cyberattack during the general election next fall. Discussions are held with the Chief Electoral Officer to guard against this risk.
The threat is very real. Last February, the Alouette aluminum smelter, on the North Shore – the largest in North America – suffered a major computer failure following a cyberattack claimed by a group of Russian criminals.
Storm at the Ministry
Created very recently by law, the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital was hit by a “perfect storm” from the start, admitted Éric Caire in response to questions from PQ member Martin Ouellet. Too many changes have been undertaken at the same time, and the performance is not necessarily there, he explained in substance. His Deputy Minister Guy Rochette was recently fired, a “retirement” he did not want to comment on.
The Minister intends to raise the bar. “There is no longer any tolerance for the fact that we exceed deadlines and budgets,” said Mr. Caire, who is still working on his digital identity project for every Quebecer.
In addition, he intended to entrust the private sector with the cloud storage of 80% of the State’s data, keeping only the data deemed “critical” (20%) in government control. The goal was to save money. However, he revealed that the government would ultimately keep much more data, 30% or 40%, all those deemed “necessary for the functioning of the State”. “We need to double our storage capacity,” he said.
The minister explained that the government had made this decision because of the risk of being “cut off from our information” if Amazon or Microsoft were to be forced by another country, such as the United States, to stop all access from abroad to their stored data, in the context of a conflict. Quebec could no longer access its data in such a situation, a risk that we cannot run, explained Éric Caire.