Canada wants to get serious about electoral cybersecurity
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Following the news that a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director believes Canada’s elections had been hacked, the government has responded by announcing that they wants to take cybersecurity seriously.
In his mandate letter to the new Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listed defending the electoral system from cyberthreats as a priority. In addition, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) has been asked to analyze the risks and release a report on the issue.
According to the Globe and Mail, the CSE will conduct a comprehensive study on cyberthreats to the electoral system and provide political parties and Elections Canada with information on how to avoid vulnerabilities, such as updating software. Minister Gould said that there are a “number of actors that we’re concerned about, some are countries, some are criminal organizations.”
The concern clearly revolves around Russia, the country that is still blamed for interfering in the American election and releasing compromising information on Hillary Clinton.
As mentioned in our previous blog post on the topic, any interference in a Canadian election would likely happen on the constituency level given how the Westminster system operates. Yet this is no less a threat than what happened in the United States.
There are two issues at play here: communications security and data storage.
Like Hillary Clinton, it is likely that any hacking of Canada’s elections would arise from poor email security. This is why anyone in a position of influence – like politicians and Elections Canada – should not be using this method of online communication. They should instead switch to a secure tool like patented Evizone Secure Communications (ESC) which provides complete security backed up by military-grade encryption.
The second issue is data storage and compliance review. Elections Canada stores a generous amount of sensitive information related to Canadian voters, and political parties have databases of information they never want released to the world. Yet if anyone manages to hack into their networks, however, these files would be vulnerable to exposure. This information also needs to be reviewed regularly to ensure compliance with appropriate regulation.
Only Evizone Secure Communications (ESC) provides the secure data storage and accountability to prevent hackers from the outside accessing your database, account for potential leaks from those within the system and ensure a robust review of all information for compliance violations.
Switching these large organizations away from email to a new product could seem daunting, but with Evizone, a new communications and governance system could be up and running within 30 days.
If the government is serious about cybersecurity and compliance, they’ll give us a call.
About Evizone Ltd.
Evizone Ltd. is a revolutionary secure communications, encryption and compliance software and service provider based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Evizone offers innovative enterprise solutions in secure messaging (next generation beyond encrypted e mail) and encryption, encryption at rest, regulatory compliance, compliance archiving, WORM compliance, 17a-4 compliance, document life cycle management and communications governance and risk management. Evizone’s services protect organizations through best in class security, encryption, recipient controls, document life cycle management, discovery management, compliance management, compliance archiving, tamper proof WORM and 17a-4 compliance archiving and complete audit records against the enormous damage caused by communications breaches. Evizone’s patented technologies offer a level of security impossible to obtain with conventional or encrypted email and fast, powerful, user friendly compliance archiving. Evizone’s services are immediately available on multiple platforms and provide the strongest commercially available communications security and compliance archiving. You can follow Evizone on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Tom Kott, HATLEY Strategy Advisors, 514.316.7082, tkott@hatleystrategies.com