On 29 July 2019, Capital One disclosed a digital security incident in which an outside individual gained unauthorized access to its systems. That party then leveraged their access to obtain the personal and financial information of Capital One cardholders as well as of individuals who at one point applied for a credit card. Overall, the bank holding company estimated that the breach affected 100 million Americans as well as six million Canadians. That’s almost a third of the population of the United States and nearly a fifth of Canada’s citizenry, respectively.

Irfahn Khimji, strategic account manager at Tripwire, explains that this event and others have motivated Canadians to start thinking more about their digital security:

Canadians are starting to realize that their privacy and security is something that needs to be taken seriously. Not only are citizens becoming more aware of the risks associated with having an online presence, but organizations are starting to take more precautions as they don’t want to be the next breach in the news.

This incident highlights just how damaging a data breach in the financial sector can be. Canada is already aware of this fact. In fact, the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (the Committee) decided to investigate digital security in the financial sector as a national economic security issue. This Committee several meetings on the issue of digital security in the financial sector for the purpose of this exercise. After hearing expert testimony on the subject, the Committee came up with nine recommendations that reflect the current dangers facing the financial industry and what the Government of Canada can do to help protect organizations. Those recommendations are presented below.

 

Recommendation 1: The Committee recommends that, in the next Parliament, the House of Commons Standing Committee on (Read more...)