National Post ePaper

While all eyes are focused on the border of Russia and Ukraine, invasions are no longer simply bootson-the-gr

Tasha Kheiriddin,

TASHA KHEIRIDDIN

INVASIONS ... NO LONGER SIMPLY BOOTS-ON-THE-GROUND.

— KHEIRIDDIN

The warnings came last week of a possible Russian cyberattack on Canadian installations. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, a branch of the Communications Security Establishment, reported knowledge of “foreign cyber threat activities, including by Russian-backed actors, to target Canadian critical infrastructure network operators, their operational and information technology.”

It did not take a rocket scientist, or a cyber-expert, to conclude that such threats were linked to statements made by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly on her recent trip to Ukraine and other European nations. “The recently launched diplomatic process offers Russia two options: they can choose meaningful dialogue, or severe consequences,” Joly said. “Canada will be ready to take additional measures, particularly with respect to the financial sector.”

When asked whether there was any truth to the possibility of cyberattacks, the Russians didn’t give a straight nyet. On CTV’S Sunday morning program Question Period, host Evan Solomon put the question to the Russian Ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov. A chuckling Stepanov replied, “Well it’s absolutely false warning. Because once again there is no rationale for Russia to act this way. What practical gain, moral, financial, material gain would Russia have if it hypothetically engaged in such an activity?”

What gain indeed, other than sending a warning shot over NATO’S bow designed to discourage assistance by Canada with NATO’S efforts in Ukraine? Note that Stepanov left out “political or military” gain from his answer — the two obvious reasons Russia would engage in this kind of intimidation.

And apparently, they were sufficient. A day after Stepanov’s denials, Global Affairs reported that it had been “the target of a cyberattack but it is not clear if the Russians, the alleged perpetrators, hacked into the system or were able to merely disrupt its service.”

The episode is a lesson to not only Canada’s government, but to governments around the world. While all eyes are focused on the border of Russia and Ukraine, invasions are no longer simply boots-on-the-ground affairs. They are increasingly launched in cyberspace, where borders are meaningless, and where the impact can be just as deadly, if not more so.

Imagine if entire electrical grids in Canada started to fail. If you live in Ontario and Quebec, you know what that’s like: Ontario suffered a massive blackout in 2003 after a failure of the northeastern power grid, Quebec after an ice storm in 1998. The cost of the Quebec failure was estimated at $5 billion; that of Ontario, $6 billion.

And that was in an era when all of us depended far less on the grid for our daily lives. Today we’d not only have to suffer no light and no heat, but no internet: no communication, no banking, no news, no GPS. The list goes on. It’s a scary thought. My colleague Matt Gurney painted such an apocalyptic picture last week in a column for The Line. It reads like the script for a horror film (minus the zombies).

Attacks like these don’t just come from rogue states, but also from criminals intent on extorting ransoms from private companies and governments alike. Just last month, Newfoundland’s health system was crippled by such an attack; in 2020, 560 health-care organizations were hit by ransomware attacks, costing over $20 billion, double the cost in 2019.

As for cyber warfare over Ukraine, it appears to be cutting both ways. A Belarusian outfit calling itself the Belarusian Cyber Partisans claims to have targeted railway lines to disrupt possible Russian troop movements into Ukraine. The U.S., meanwhile, is on high alert for possible cyberattacks on its critical infrastructure as tensions mount in the region.

This could have far-reaching implications. According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: “A serious cyberattack could trigger (NATO’S) Article 5, where an attack against one ally is treated as an attack against all.” If the First World War started with a gunshot in Serbia, will a third world war begin with a malware attack in cyberspace? As the recent attack on Canada can sadly confirm, such a question is no longer hypothetical.

FRONT PAGE

en-ca

2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://nationalpost.pressreader.com/article/281694028165019

Postmedia