Lack of cybersecurity framework mind-boggling: Telus exec

TORONTO — A security executive at Telus Corp. told an industry conference on Monday that industry and government must work together to put in place a national framework for cybersecurity in Canada. “It boggles my mind...that we’re still lacking even a basic standard, a basic framework...for enforcement parameters in this country” when it comes to cybersecurity, Carey Frey, Telus’ vice-president of security and chief security officer, said on a panel discussing cybersecurity at the Telecom Summit in Toronto. Organizations can only be expected to “do this on a leadership basis, on a voluntary basis, for so long,” Frey said. He added the entire “ecosystem,” which consists of parties including telecoms, product developers and the government, must act in unison to rectify this to ensure sufficient security and privacy. “Going back to the principles of privacy by design, especially for product developers, I think that’s gotta be absolutely key,” Frey said. The panel was discussing recent events, including Facebook Inc.’s data scandal and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into effect May 25. Privacy expert Ann Cavoukian, who praised the new GDPR rules, developed the principle as one that ensures privacy issues are considered at all stages of a product’s development. In March, the House of Commons ethics committee recommended making the privacy by design principle a central principle of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). “There are a lot of parts of that ecosystem that aren’t there,” Frey added. “We have to be able to build a consensus around this and move forward.” Earlier this year, at a conference hosted by the Conference Board of Canada, panelists mulled the idea of government-imposed import standards on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, many of which are unsecured. But Peter Morin, a KPMG LLP cybersecurity expert, also said he doesn’t think the government is quite there yet. Also lagging are some Canadian companies who just don’t have the right mindset when it comes to cybersecurity, another panelist said Monday. Sean Forkan, vice-president and country manager in Canada for Dell-owned VMware, said he’s still doesn’t see the cybersecurity mindset in the senior executives at Canadian companies he’s met. “There’s this lackadaisical mindset around cybersecurity,” Forkan said. “I just wish we were further along.” Forkan, who said Canada has underspent on cybersecurity, said he isn’t sure what should be done, but he hypothesizes that it might be a combination of regulation and partnership between business and government. Later in the day, on a panel about network innovation, Telus’ chief technology officer Ibrahim Gedeon reiterated that “there’s gotta be a framework for privacy, a framework for data, a framework for trust” with industry and regulators involved. The GDPR rules will give citizens the ability to opt out of sharing their data. Frey said an “easy” way to gain the trust of citizens is to impose a “no consent by default,” and where you pay for a service, then there be a “security by default.” That way, consumers have full control of what they want to do with their data. Forkan gave some harsh figures to illustrate what’s going on at some companies: one such business, he said, suffered two million distinct cyber attacks in one day. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Lack of cybersecurity framework mind-boggling: Telus exec

News | June 4, 2018

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Lack of cybersecurity framework mind-boggling: Telus exec

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