GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES CYBER-SECURITY CAMPAIGN

Awareness, Prevention First Line of Defence, Says RCMP'S Cybercrime
Boss

The best way to fight the growing threat of cybercrime is through
prevention, which is why the federal government launched a website and
ad campaign Monday aimed at getting Canadians to do their part.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews unveiled www.getcybersafe.ca at the
University of Ottawa as part of the kickoff to Cyber Security
Awareness Month, which runs through October.

The campaign, he said, is designed to help Canadians protect
themselves and their families by better understanding the threats they
can face online.

"Our increasing reliance on cyber technologies makes us more
vulnerable to those who would attack our digital infrastructure to
undermine our national security, economic prosperity and quality of
life," Toews said. "Increasingly, cyberspace is being used and exploited.

"It's being used by foreign governments and unscrupulous corporations
to steal intellectual property and confidential information to gain
military, commercial and economic advantages.

"It's being used by organized crime groups who engage in identity
theft, money laundering and extortion.

"It's being used by terrorists to spread the message of hate, to
coordinate their activities and recruit others, and Canada and
Canadians are not immune."

RCMP Supt. Tony Pickett of the cybercrime branch said the Internet has
breathed new life into old crimes.

Fraud has moved online, he said, along with drug trafficking and money
laundering.

"At the same time, new crimes such as hacking and theft of data ... have
emerged," he said. "The first line of defence to addressing crime,
especially cybercrime, is awareness and prevention."

While absent from the government's recently tabled omnibus crime bill,
Toews said the Conservatives were also planning to move forward with
lawful access legislation aimed at giving law enforcement agencies
more tools to conduct web surveillance.

As with many of their tough-oncrime proposals, the Conservatives were
unable to get the controversial cyber-spying legislation passed in the
last Parliament given their minority status.

With its new-found majority, the government has vowed to push its
crime agenda through within the first 100 sitting days of this new
Parliament.

The Canadian government has been among a host of bodies to suffer the
effects of hacking.

In August, a report by Internet security giant McAfee revealed a
massive wave of global cyber attacks that saw two Canadian government
agencies' computer systems infiltrated.

The federal government was among 72 organizations, including the
United Nations, U.S. government, defence contractors and other
international companies that were compromised, the company said,
blaming the attacks on an unnamed foreign government.

In January, the Department of Finance and the Treasury Board confirmed
hackers had accessed its networks by sending malicious emails to
high-ranking department officials that contained a link to a webpage
infected with a sophisticated virus.