Montreal continues to expand its footprint in the digital universe. At the Palais des Congrès, on Tuesday, the first International Cybersecurity Forum (ICF) held outside Europe opens. The objective is to make it an annual event of global scope, which will make the voices of local cybersecurity experts resonate all over the planet… starting with Quebec itself.
The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia tends to prove that cybercrime is not a virtual phenomenon isolated from international geopolitical issues. The North American FIC is therefore born with the implicit desire of its organizers to extend into cyberspace alliances that have already been tested by past military conflicts.
“It will be an open and healthy discussion between political partners,” said FIC North America CEO and main organizer Vincent Riou. “Several well-known pirate groups started targeting Ukraine when the conflict started. That says a lot about the influence of governments like Russia on this sector. The objective of the FIC is therefore to strengthen existing links to improve “the resilience of the system” in the face of such threats.
One of the conferences at the top of the FIC program aims to explain what to do to “keep Ukraine connected” to the Internet, in the event of network cuts. Russia is suspected of targeting the country’s wired infrastructure to weaken resistance to its invasion. The Montreal company eQualitie has created applications to keep the network active despite these attacks. She will present them to the FIC.
Organized cybercrime in the crosshairs
Visitors to FIC North America this week are unlikely to come across Chinese state employees either, despite the presence on site of many high-ranking public security organizations from Europe and America, including Europol. , the RCMP and CISA, the American cyber defense agency, says Vincent Riou.
A resilience also tested by highly organized criminal groups in cyberspace. The seizure by the European authorities, in the summer of 2020, of the encrypted messaging network EncroChat embodies this need to better coordinate the fight against illegal activities in the digital world. EncroChat was popular with drug traffickers, and its infiltration by European police led to the indictment of 1,571 members of criminal groups and the seizure of 20 tons of drugs and 120 million in dirty money.
What has been dubbed the biggest blow to European organized crime, however, has only lifted a small tip of the veil behind which drug traffickers trade more than $15 billion in drugs each year.
“These days, criminal activity rarely takes place within a single border,” continues Vincent Riou. Connecting regional and national authorities in the context of an event like the FIC is a way to share good practices to allow more successes like the case of EncroChat, according to him.
“We want to turn the discussion aside, we want to change the insecurity and the fear on board so that it is the criminals who feel them. »
Negligent netizens?
The public is not spared from cybercrime. Whether the Internet user is at home or at work, his Internet connection and his mailbox represent risks if he lets his guard down a little too much. It’s individuals who bite phishing campaigns and ransomware, but it’s usually organizations that pay the price.
Since insurers in France have authorized claims for ransomware fraud, this type of cyberattack has experienced a sudden rise in popularity which is not a coincidence: hackers have a flair for finding the weakest link in the digital channel.
Today, criminal activity rarely takes place within a single border. We want to turn the discussion aside, we want to change the insecurity and the fear on board so that it is the criminals who feel them.
And in Quebec, this link is in business. At least that’s what a survey published at the end of October by the specialized firm Terranova Security claims. According to this survey, one-third of Quebec employees say they are little or not concerned about data theft at work. One in five employees say they cannot be targeted.
Above all: three-quarters of respondents believe that protecting data from cyber threats is the sole responsibility of corporate IT.
“There’s work to be done to educate people about the important role they play in protecting workplace data,” said Theo Zafirakos, director of IT security at Terranova Security. “Cybersecurity training and awareness is neglected by many Quebec companies, even though cybercrime is on the rise, which is worrying. »
Visitors expected this week at FIC North America would tend to agree.