Cybercrime Becoming Increasing Common in Canada

By: Kuljit Grewal  |   June 13th, 2012   |   News, O Canada

A San Diego-based IT security company called Websense Inc. has provided some frightening insight into Canada’s current cybercrime picture. According to an annual study conducted by Websense, an increased number of Canadian servers have fallen victim to malicious hackers, who seek to attack unsuspecting Canadian and international users.

 

Canada’s current crystal clean cyber reputation may be in jeopardy unless more active measures are taken to eliminate cyber-attacks such as phishing. This is a technique whereby unassuming people are tricked into providing sensitive and private information such as online banking passwords and usernames via emails, websites or more recently social media sources such as Facebook. Canada currently ranks second in the world in terms of the volume of phishing websites, behind only the US, a damning position and something seriously worth considering. Adding to this is the fact that the number of such sites has increased 170 percent year over year as compared to 2011.

 

According to the study, the number of malicious websites run from Canadian servers overall has increased by 239 percent over the year, a trend that is happening world round due to the combination of an increased dependence on technology for commerce as well as the availability of sensitive information on the internet.

 

The report suggests that Canada’s government take a stronger stand in protecting their citizens by more aggressively scrutinizing Canadian IP addresses as well as actively orchestrated cybercrime crackdowns, requiring increased resources and harsher punishments. Increased protection against cybercrime is a collective effort, requiring companies to protect customer information, internet providers to use updated and stricter protection as well as government enforcing stronger laws and discipline.

 

Regardless of the fact that Canada placed sixth in terms of overall cybercrime world round, the goal moving forward should be to move off to top of the list completely, something that will prove a challenge given the rapid advances made in terms of technology and the time we spend using it.