British Columbia government lax on cybersecurity practices, auditor reviews

VICTORIA — The British Columbia federal government must do a far better work of safeguarding its laptop or computer programs from cybersecurity threats, suggests auditor general Michael Pickup.

© Supplied by The Canadian Push

An audit of five govt ministries identified only Education and learning and the details department of Citizens’ Services furnished strong protections in opposition to prospective threats, he reported Tuesday.

The audit concluded the ministries of Finance, Wellbeing and Natural Sources as nicely as much of Citizens’ Expert services did not have satisfactory cybersecurity practices to take care of its data know-how techniques, Pickup instructed a news conference.

The report did not highlight a precise risk, but it uncovered breaches in cybersecurity are increasing globally.

The audit suggests research clearly show cyberattacks arise each 39 seconds or an average of 2,224 occasions a day. Data breaches exposed 8.4 billion records globally in the first 4 months of last calendar year, it claims.

Pickup explained businesses with inadequately managed protection techniques are vulnerable to attacks.

“These weaknesses could hinder the capacity of the ministries to create and employ acceptable safeguards to shield their IT belongings from cybersecurity threats,” he said.

The audit located security requirements at the ministries lacked unique definitions of roles and tasks, stated Pickup.

It also uncovered inappropriately managed inventories, such as unauthorized devices on networks and information that had been missing crucial details, he said.

“The set up procedures and standards, they lack precise guidelines to discover and control IT property for the purpose of controlling cybersecurity challenges,” Pickup reported.

Last June, an investigation by the information and privateness commissioners of B.C. and Ontario observed LifeLabs unsuccessful to safeguard the individual overall health information and facts of millions of Canadians since of a massive privateness breach in December 2019.

The commissioners reported in a assertion LifeLabs didn’t have suitable safety in location and unsuccessful to choose sensible actions to secure private health details in its digital systems.

LifeLabs claimed just after the commissioners’ report that it experienced appointed a main information and facts stability officer to undertake a gold-regular enhancement of its details engineering safety devices.

In 2015, the B.C. governing administration mentioned a tough generate that contains the personalized documents of 3.4 million B.C. and Yukon learners and lecturers, relationship again more than 30 years, had disappeared.

Pickup claimed the audit helps make 7 tips, all of which have been accepted by the govt.

“When governing administration has safety controls to defend IT belongings and the details residing on them, there is extra we can do in this spot,” states a federal government response provided in Pickup’s audit.

“Existing controls include machine authentication, encryption, capability to remotely wipe a gadget that is dropped or stolen and standard patching of vulnerabilities,” claims the response.

The authorities states it will launch a evaluate, due for completion in December 2021, that examines ministry cybersecurity roles and tasks and consists of tips and methods to maintain hazard protections.  

Pickup claimed he expects the audit’s findings to be talked over by users of the legislature who sit on committees overseeing information and facts technological innovation companies.

“These reviews are tools for the folks in the legislature to then look to government and maintain them accountable on why are these issues taking place to begin with and how does government boost,” he said.

Pickup explained his workplace is also scheduling a future evaluate of the government’s computer system techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic mainly because many govt staff members are doing work from household.

This report by The Canadian Push was first published Jan. 19, 2021.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press