Banking on making Canada’s electricity infrastructure safe against cyber threats 

There is seen to be a growing need to make sure the cyber systems that are being utilized for Canada’s energy infrastructure and services are kept safe. Threats have continued to increase because of the fast-changing technology experienced today. This has the potential not only to disrupt Canadian’s lives, but also put the national security and economic well-being of the country at risk. 

Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources announced that there will be over $375,000 in funding for the Université de Sherbrooke to partner with Hydro-Sherbrooke, Quebec’s second-largest electricity distribution network, to make cyber security advancements and improvements to the utility’s infrastructure. Along with this, a multidisciplinary research team was tasked to design and develop new methods to automatically identify potential cybersecurity threats. The team foresees to do this by using cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

The funding to the Government of Canada is provided through Natural Resources Canada and their Cyber Security and Critical Energy Infrastructure Program. This program received over $2.42 million as budget for 2018 to enhance the cyber security and resilience of domestic and cross-border energy infrastructure under Canada’s National Cyber Security Strategy. The university and the utility also showed their contribution to the project bringing the total investment to over $750,000.