Who Are We?

01. In Brief:

We are a community of cybersecurity practitioners who are committed to working together within and across BC sectors and jurisdictions to make our region more cyber resilient through sharing knowledge, advice and tools with those who need them. Raising our bar raises the costs to those who want to target our networks and systems and helps protect our collective security and prosperity.

02. The Challenge:

British Columbia’s geographic location, economic significance, and critical infrastructure make us a desirable threat target for cyber criminals and nation states. We are the beginning of the supply chain for Canada, the Pacific Gateway; our universities are leading in innovation and expertise that create jobs and new markets; and our businesses are growing faster than almost anywhere in Canada, driving a $300B vibrant economy. We also have a rich social fabric made up of Indigenous communities and a thriving NGO and non-profit sector which make up our uniquely BC identity.

To strengthen our regional posture against the constant cyber threat activity that is seeking to disrupt and extort our economic and social way of life, we need to come together as a cross-sector, multi-jurisdictional community, leveraging the best of our existing knowledge and skills, to help strengthen those who lack the resources and knowledge to protect themselves.

A collective defence is the best defence. We need to support each other and raise the collective bar to increase our resilience to the threats seeking to cause harm to our home.

By bringing together cybersecurity practitioners in a community of collective defence, a BC Cyber Hub, we can freely share best practices, knowledge, advice and tools with those who need them most, aiming to protect the most vulnerable organizations and businesses in BC against the ever-evolving threat.

03. National Considerations:

We have talked for many years about the importance of cybersecurity collaboration.

There are some truly excellent cybersecurity initiatives and partnerships in Canada, but they have not produced a national culture of cybersecurity. Much of this good work is isolated geographically or designed to support a specific sector or sub-sector or jurisdiction.

While these focused efforts address some key challenges, the interconnected nature of our systems and networks, and the growing number and resolve of threat actors only present new challenges. We are left with a widening cybersecurity gap within a broad ecosystem of Canadian organizations, some of which are mature and prepared and many others that are less experienced and under-resourced.

If we do not find ways to reduce this gap and adopt a more community-minded approach, we will have to accept increasing risk to our collective security and resilience.

A coherent, inclusive model of partnering can both tap into the existing good vertical initiatives and also focus on building horizontal, cross-sectoral and multi-jurisdictional communities that narrow the cybersecurity gap, region by region, until we have built a coherent, inclusive and scalable national network of partners.

04. The BC Hub Model:

We look to BC with its rich mix of organizations and a strong commitment to cybersecurity to pilot this model. A group of cybersecurity leaders representing federal, provincial, municipal governments, business, Indigenous communities, and NGOs, etc. are working together (volunteering) to enable a broad horizontal network of members to partner as a regional community of practice in lower BC.

The goal is to quickly grow the inclusive local community (or communities) of practice in a way where each member finds new value in the Hub, where trust is built as more mature members generously share cybersecurity knowledge and practices with those who need assistance to meet basic standards. This will help build both capability and confidence and offset risk in the region's cyber ecosystem.

Diverse membership is important.

Having federal government participation in the BC pilot will ensure that lessons from the Hub are incorporated into national strategies and plans going forward.

Having provincial, local municipal, Indigenous and business members in this pilot will ensure that regional priorities and needs are front and centre.

The goal is to create a contagion model. We will develop a blueprint from the BC pilot that can be shared to inspire and provide the opportunity to connect similar communities of practice across the country. Each hub will likely have much in common, but each is also free to evolve according to regional priorities, gaps and/or socio-economic conditions.

With time, a constellation of Hubs can get us closer to that national culture of cyber resilience.

05. Call To Action:

If you are looking for advice or help to implement better cybersecurity in your organization, or if you have expertise and knowledge to share with those who need it, come join us in our new not-for-profit BC Cybersecurity Hub!