Vanguard Magazine

cyBer www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021 37 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), this sig- nificantly increases risk, with likely impacts upon operational effectiveness and secu- rity. The focus, therefore, shifts towards people and their need for ongoing security training to keep the organization safe. In 2019, the University of Ottawa an- nounced the launch of a uOttawa hub for cybersecurity and cyber safety. Together, IBM and the university are addressing critical government, public and private sec- tor needs for advanced cybersecurity, spe- cializing in research, solutions, skills, and services. One of the fastest-growing fields in Canada is cybersecurity, but with that, comes a growing skills gap. As we consider how DND and CAF will remain strong and able to deliver resources in the digital age, there is an increasing need to grow Canada's cybersecurity workforce and ap- ply new approaches to protect the public and their institutions from cyber threats and attacks. In addition to a demonstrated cultural adaptability to circumstances and the recognition of a skills gap, the funda- mentals of military operations have always included innovation. Traditionally that has included methods to enhance intelli- gence collection and analysis, along with new weapon types and defensive technolo- gies. However, and now in a digital age, what has evolved extremely rapidly from that core requirement is the importance of "data" both for offensive operations and defensive measures. In this new world of data, change occurs in ever-increasing cycles of speed and com- plexity. Given that exponentially more data is created daily, that concern is well placed. The world generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data a day. And according to Forbes, 90 per cent of all the data was generated in the past two years. For military operations, this is both an opportunity and a threat, particu- larly when one considers rapidly emerging technologies that will amplify these effects. Consider quantum computing. The first IBM Q Hub in Canada was established at the Université de Sherbrooke earlier this year. Quantum is forward-looking and is expected to shed light on processes of mo- lecular and chemical interactions, address difficult optimization problems, and boost the power of artificial intelligence. Advances like these could open the door to new scien- tific discoveries, life-saving drugs, and im- provements in supply chains, logistics, and the modelling of financial data. With regard to security, quantum-safe cryptography and lattice-based cryptography are being pre- pared for widespread use. These cryptog- raphy techniques will help protects against an important threat related to "code-break- ing" that is still likely many years from being developed. However, practical applications with a quantum advantage will emerge and it is important to prepare systems now for the quantum era. Digital Challenges and Digital Transformation Defence plays an important role within the Government of Canada's efforts, and there is a significant opportunity to pair innovation and strategic leadership. As the Canadian Defence Plan rightly states, "there is a requirement for leadership to promote a culture of innovation by actively encouraging fresh thinking, harnessing the Defence Team's ideas and insights to identify and articulate new requirements, and creating opportunities for organiza- tional learning and the exchange of ideas, including outreach activities with allies, partners, academia and industry." The call for "leadership in innovation" is both timely and a reflection of current condi- tions around the world that challenges existing approaches. It reflects a reality of heightened adversarial prowess that requires fresh thinking and engagement with allies and partners in the private sec- tor. The DND and CAF's ability to meet future threats are increasingly the focus of both DND's civilian information technol- ogy teams and unit commanders. This fo- cus requires agility, aptitude, and a sense of urgency. The author of The Perfect Weapon, Da- vid E Sanger, noted that 35 countries have advanced cyber competencies. Compara- tively speaking, only nine countries have a nuclear capability. Military engagements, from training missions to active combat, now face a newly persistent and growing threat. One capable of not simply crip- pling a nation's critical infrastructure, but to "take off-line" a force deployment or a headquarters command and control cen- tre. As such, this emerged age of asymmet- rical warfare now motivates new and inno- vative concepts for the DND and the CAF. The world ahead is opaque, but there is a way forward. It is achieved via a well- considered cybersecurity strategy and the application of leading intelligence exploi- tation technology. Not with solutions in development, but with real-world and ready to deploy capabilities. Smart appli- cations that are used by allies or are ca- pable of information fusion, including an ability to merge existing technologies. Of first-order importance is a framework that prizes Threat Management, Digital Trust, and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In terms of AI, there are three important differentiators to consider. One, it aug- ments human intelligence yet maintains a human in the loop. Two, organizational data remains their data, always. Third, or- ganizations must know how the AI was trained and who trained it. Not all pur- veyors of AI meet these criteria. It is also critical to develop a strategy on the use of AI within an organization as well as how it will contribute to decision making. Criti- cally applying AI to cybersecurity acceler- ates the analysis of data to speed response times. This in turn provides insights that would otherwise go undetected due to under-resourced security operations, as well as the sheer volume of risk data to be assessed. As such the DND and CAF are advised to emulate private sector best practices in cybersecurity. Drawing on the lessons learned from financial institutions where high global stakes and incessant threats exist, what works is a combination of ma- chine learning technology, the agility of secure hybrid-multi cloud, and zero-trust environments. "There is a requirement for leadership to promote a culture of innovation by actively encouraging fresh thinking, harnessing the Defence Team's ideas and insights to identify and articulate new requirements, and creating opportunities for organizational learning and the exchange of ideas, including outreach activities with allies, partners, academia and industry."

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