Securing our Neighbourhood to Secure Ourselves: Lessons from a National Community of Cybersecurity Vigilantes

Just as a secure neighbourhood strengthens the security measures of each household, the security of Canada’s higher ed institutions is strengthened by the practices of all other institutions. Although institutions continue... [ view full abstract ]

Just as a secure neighbourhood strengthens the security measures of each household, the security of Canada’s higher ed institutions is strengthened by the practices of all other institutions. Although institutions continue to participate in regional and national groups to learn about new threats and share best practices, most do not collaborate on cybersecurity operations.  To strengthen the whole community through greater visibility of the breadth of security issues and foster a shared culture of learning, a proactive and systematic joint approach to security is critical. One approach to towards the adoption of this culture has been CANARIE’s Joint Security Project, launched in mid 2017 in cooperation with ISED.  With the participation of 40 institutions, the project supports an operational progression to how infrastructure, people, and processes align to collaborate on security best practices and risk mitigation.  The project also involves Canadian cybersecurity researchers in advancing the analysis of aggregate cybersecurity data.

In this session, the manager of CANARIE’s security program will discuss the lessons learned in orchestrating a collaborative security project among widely diverse institutions, and where Canada’s higher ed institutions may further collaborate to continue to secure the neighborhood.