Dear enemies, please don’t attack us at night or on weekends

The Auditor-Generals fall report, as always, made for interesting reading. Particularly catching was the third chapter, which analyzed Canadas planning and preparedness for a major cyber attack against our government or national infrastructure. Canada seems to have adopted Meh, probably wont happen as its official cyber-security policy.

There are, of course, the usual groaners found in any A-G reports. Since 2001, the federal government has theoretically spent $780-million on cyber security initiatives. Except not really. Much of that money was packaged together under plans that dealt with cyber security, but not exclusively. While no ones suggesting it paid for any gazebos, the Auditor-General wasnt able to precisely determine what it was spent on. One instructive line from his report notes that Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) received $570-million of the total, but that the funds were directed to the CSECs overall program capacity in says that could directly or indirectly support cyber protection.

Looking deeper into the governments preparedness, the Auditor-General discovered that some components of the plan are working well. The major players in the energy and natural resources sector, for example, has excellent co-operation both with the government and among themselves, the A-G reports. Other parts of the government and broader economy, however, seem to have little understanding of their responsibilities and tasks. It notes that the government has strategies and goals, but few plans.

But the real kicker in the report something that ought to make every Canadian who ever uses a phone, bank account or, you know, electricity, take note is that the governments central cyber security operations centre keeps regular business hours.

Dear enemies: If youre going to try and hack us or launch a major cyber attack on us, please dont do it on weekends or at night. The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) is currently staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ottawa time, on Mondays through Fridays

Dear enemies: If youre going to try and hack us or launch a major cyber attack on us, please dont do it on weekends or at night. The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) is currently staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ottawa time, on Mondays through Fridays.

The CCIRC, which the A-G notes is the focal point for monitoring and reacting to cyber threats, would be the command centre in the event of a major cyber attack against a Canadian government agency or industry. So long as someones actually in the office.If a cyber attack were to occur outside of business hours, its supposed to be reported to the Government Operations Centre, a federal command post for national-level emergencies that is staffed around the clock. Theyll then call someone from CCIRC. (Assuming, of course, the phones still work.)

There might well be an argument for folding the CCIRCs functions directly into those overseen by the operations centre. Indeed, the CCIRC is already a component of the operations centre. But it would be an imperfect fit. While some cyber attacks could rise to the level of a national emergency, there are also a range of possible cyber attack scenarios that, while serious, dont quite make it that far. Imagine, for example, an attack that seeks to steal intelligence secrets. Or personal banking information. It would be nice to have some ability to respond to that without having to put the entire federal government on red alert.

And the government seems to agree. It has allocated additional funds to get the CCIRC running seven-days a week, 24 hours no, wait, sorry. Seven-days a week for 15 hours a day. The other nine hours will still be unstaffed, except for the guy on call. Oh, and the money is spread out over five years. So it might take until 2017 to get there.

This is typical of Canadian emergency response planning, which tends to bank more on good luck than good preparations. And it also calls into question how committed any branch of the government is to cyber security. Its a real problem Canadian networks have been attacked before, as the report notes. The government has promised to do better. Lets hope those who mean us harm will give us the time we need to follow through.

Continued here:

Dear enemies, please don’t attack us at night or on weekends