QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
December 14, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, we are having problems accessing some of the government’s websites. The two we are working with are Canada Revenue Agency and Statistics Canada, but I understand it is not confined to those two departments. There is a message on the Government of Canada website that says there is a problem with cybersecurity vulnerability.
Could you give us some information as to what is happening, the severity of it and, especially, how long you think this problem is going to last, since we are going to be adjourning for six weeks?
Thank you. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a timeline for when this problem will be totally resolved. As honourable senators know — and, Senator Marshall, you referred to it in your question — there has been a rather broad challenge to our cyberinfrastructure caused by some weaknesses in a program that is used broadly across many sectors.
Out of concern for security, privacy and other considerations, a number of websites, both government and non-government, have chosen to shut down to make sure that nothing worse happens to the data that is contained therein. I will make inquiries. I have every confidence that the CSE and other institutions that are responsible for protecting the security of our infrastructure are hard at work to solve the problem. I will report back if I have more information.
Thank you very much, Senator Gold. Could you also find out if there is any information about the magnitude of the work and the cost? I think there is about $60 million in Supplementary Estimates (B), but based on what I’m hearing in the media, the magnitude of the problem is quite extensive so $60 million doesn’t sound like a lot of money. If there is any additional information you could find on that, it would be appreciated. Could you do that?
I certainly will.
