Strengthening Cyber Security Protection
The security of the Government of Canada’s information technology (IT) infrastructure is essential to the delivery of services to Canadians. The federal government now offers more than 130 commonly used services online, including income tax, pensions and other benefits, employment insurance, student loan applications and national security operations.
No organization is immune to IT security threats, including the Government of Canada:
- Incidents have become more frequent and more sophisticated, with an increasing impact, both on government business and on the costs to remediate and recover from them.
- IT procurement involves long and complex supply chains that can be vulnerable to compromise at any stage.
- A number of systems and software programs across government are at or nearing end of life, which means they are no longer supported by software developers and do not receive up-to-date security patches.
Shared Services Canada (SSC) works with the Communications Security Establishment, Public Safety Canada and other departments to protect the Government of Canada’s IT infrastructure and the data stored within federal systems against cyber threats. The approach is to secure all elements of the IT system including points of entry, telecommunications networks, data centres and the hardware and software at the desktop.
Budget 2016 resources are enabling SSC to increase protection against cyber threats. Robust IT security protection is necessary for the Government’s existing digital services, as well as the expanded digital services planned for the future.
This security upgrade is complemented by ongoing measures, such as SSC’s 24/7/365 Cyber and IT Security Operations Centre, the consolidation of IT and systems procurement, the constant review of supply chains and processes, and the incorporation of security by design into all new Government of Canada IT systems and services
Budget 2016 focuses on infrastructure investments to strengthen Canada’s economy. For its part, SSC will strengthen IT security and upgrade mission-critical data centres, security systems, networks and storage systems to improve service to customer organizations; to help make more government services to Canadians ‘digital by default’; and to facilitate Canada’s Open Government approach.
For further information:
Media Relations
Shared Services Canada
1-855-215-3656
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