Canadian organizations are incapable of handling and recovering from new cyber threats including artificial intelligence, according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). .“With new technology, we often see bad actors adopt early, before businesses have new defence strategies in place,” said CIRA General Manager, Cybersecurity and Domain Name Systems Jon Ferguson in a press release..“In the hands of criminals, AI can supercharge efforts to trick employees and exploit vulnerabilities in a company’s digital infrastructure.” .While most organizations are worried about potential cyber threats from new technology such as generative AI (68%), the CIRA said few have policies in place to prevent, protect and educate their teams about the nature of these attacks. It said three-tenths of organizations reported having an AI policy in place, despite a rise in automated attacks and data breaches. .As these technologies continue to evolve, so too does the cost of recovering from a cyber attack, which goes far beyond financial burden. Among the organizations that experienced a ransomware attack, seven-tenths indicated they paid the demands. .Out of those that paid the ransom, 22% paid up to $100,000. One-third of organizations experienced a loss of revenue because of a cyber attack, and one-quarter suffered damage to their reputation..The CIRA went on to say two-fifths of organizations experienced an employee or customer data breach last year. It added most say it took less than one month to recover their organization’s IT systems to pre-incident capacity, and 47% had it take less than one week. .Organizations face cyber risks by relying on outdated technologies, with 37% of them using those released prior to 2010. .“It’s no secret that most organizations struggle to adapt to new technology, and today’s results suggest that Canadian firms still have work to do to prepare for the threats posed by AI,” said Ferguson. .A Canadian cyber intelligence agency warned the country’s oil and gas sector in June to be vigilant against Russian hackers in retaliation for its support of Ukraine. .READ MORE: Canada’s cyber cops warning of Russian hacking attacks on energy companies.The Canadian Security Establishment (CES) warned Russian-aligned non-state actors are continuing attempts to compromise the oil and gas sector. The CES identified ransomware as the most likely threat..“We assess that the intent of this activity is very likely to disrupt critical services for psychological impact, ultimately to weaken Canadian support for Ukraine,” said the CES. .The survey was conducted online among 500 Canadian cybersecurity decision makers in August. No margin of error was assigned to it.
