Canadian Cyber News Rewire - 11/04/26

Wiring you into the cyber news relevant to Canada the week ending April 11

The Weekly New Rewire is a survey of cyber or adjacent news stories that I read this past week (or recently). Please leave a comment if you think I missed anything.

Editor Notes:

• I have two new papers out with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute:

  • Following the Digital Snail’s Trail: The Short History of Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Operations

  • Everything You Should Know About CAF Cyber Command

• Go sign Tanya Janca’s Secure-Coding Petition!

  • The article is finally out and can be read here.

---

Canadian News

• AI being used to add fake details in immigration, asylum applications, federal officials say

  • An article on one instance of this came out a couple of weeks ago; this is a broader exposé on the wider use of AI and the problems it will cause.

• Kyndryl Foundation backs JEDI for cyber skills training

  • JEDI is a New Brunswick group that focuses on working with Indigenous communities on economic and workforce development.

• Saab dangles sovereign data centre in Montreal to undercut F-35 fighter contract

  • I honestly don’t think this will affect the overall calculus that much because the military is 100% behind F-35, and any decision is based on politics and long-term strategic balancing.

• Invisible shield: How CAFCYBERCOM protects the systems that protect Canada

  • Bit of a fluff piece out by CAFCYBERCOM Public Affairs

• A new, alarming scam trend is running rampant in Canada

  • About leveraging media reports about class-action settlements for use in scams. This is not really “new,” it’s just another scam.

• Liberals adopt policy to restrict kids from social media

  • The Federal Liberal Party of Canada adopted a non-binding resolution in favor of banning the use of social media by those under the age of 16.

  • There are major issues with such policies because it relies on identity verification. Canada doesn’t even have updated privacy laws yet, but the Liberals want to rush ahead and force private corporations to store our data to verify ages. This is quite dangerous for Canadians’ privacy.

• Ontario and Quebec police probing cyber network that hacked millions of household devices

• How a volunteer-run cyber conference grew to fill Halifax’s convention centre

  • Article about ATLSEC

• Lockheed Martin Canada Invests $3.6M CAD in Ottawa-based Lemay.ai

  • Investment as part of ITB commients to support in-service support for CC-130J Super Hercules aircraft fleet.

• Canada is Working with Organisation for American States on Cybersecurity

  • Canada is the listed donor country on projects addressing the gender gap in cybersecurity and strengthening capacity to address cybercrime in the Americas

• CRTC seeking new Broadband Fund proposals to help improve Internet services for Canadians

• CRTC launches new call for proposals to its Broadband Fund to help improve Internet and cellphone services

  • Rural and Northern/Arctic communities remain severely underserved with limited options for access in Canada.

• Provinces view digital sovereignty very differently…

  • Ontario Welcomes Microsoft’s AI Infrastructure Expansion

  • (Google Translated) Minister Gilles Bélanger’s mission: to strengthen the strategic partnership between France and Quebec in the area of ​​digital sovereignty

• Bank of Canada, Major Lenders Met on Anthropic AI Cyber Risk

  • While it is good they are meeting to discuss cyber risk, it should likely be focused more broadly than just Anthropic’s latest marketing.

• CAFCYBERCOM participates in Latvia-led Threat Hunt Workshop in Riga

  • CAF Cyber Forces have been working closely with Latvia on cyber threat hunting since at least 2022.

• Ambassador of the Phillipines to Canada met with Sami Khoury, who is the Senior Official for Cyber Security and former head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

  

---

Canada-Relevant News

As many issues don’t respect borders, I am creating this section for stories that impact Canada, but may not be Canadian-sourced or focused, to differentiate from the previous section that will be 100% focused on Canada

• Microsoft Says You’re Not Supposed to Take Copilot’s Advice Seriously

  • Microsoft recently slipped into its terms of service that you should basically treat copilot as a toy and not for anything important. That should tell you a lot about its efficacy.

• Anthropic limits access to Mythos, its new cybersecurity AI model

  • I am seeing/hearing a lot of interesting things about this new model. Anthropic is making some major advancements in the use of AI for cybersecurity. With that said, people should still have a healthy amount of skepticism about Anthropic’s marketing.

• OpenClaw gives users yet another reason to be freaked out about security

  • I haven’t shared too much about OpenClaw, but it is just a colossal mess.

• Analysis Finds That Google’s AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization

• Bringing Rust to the Pixel Baseband (h/t Catalin Cimpanu)

  • Apparently Google used the Rust in the last Pixel release. Rust is a programming language that is know for its benefits to cybersecurity, especially regarding memory safety..

• Men Are Buying Hacking Tools to Use Against Their Wives and Friends

  • The ease of access is turning this into a crime of convenience for many.

• WebinarTV Secretly Scraped Zoom Meetings of Anonymous Recovery Programs

  • Zoom remains popular in Canada.

---

Canadian Cyber Threat Intelligence

While not all attacks are reported or receive media attention, any notable or open-source cyber attacks on Canadian organizations and any relevant cyber threat intelligence to Canada will be posted here. I only list the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s (CCCS) alerts here, not all advisories; follow the full feed here.

• Alert - AL26-007 - Vulnerability impacting Fortinet FortiClientEMS - CVE-2026-35616

• Flowise AI Agent Builder Under Active CVSS 10.0 RCE Exploitation; 12,000+ Instances Exposed

• Disgruntled researcher leaks “BlueHammer” Windows zero-day exploit

  • If you don’t have an engaged, cooperative disclosure process, you’ll get disclosures you’ll wish you had cooperated with.

• Investigating Storm-2755: “Payroll pirate” attacks targeting Canadian employees

• Adobe Reader zero-day vulnerability in active exploitation

• CISA Adds One Known Fortinet Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

• CPUID website hacked: users report HWMonitor and CPU-Z delivering malware

• New VENOM phishing attacks steal senior executives’ Microsoft logins

---

Have your business and logo featured in Canadian Cyber in Context with a sponsorship.

---

Research, Op-Eds, and Events

Compliance is Cash - Where to Begin with CPCSC

• Michael Geist: Could Bill C-22 Make Canadians Less Safe? The Systemic Vulnerability Gap in Canada’s New Surveillance Law

• Globe and Mail OpEd by Michael Geist: The U.S. isn’t happy about Canada’s quest for digital sovereignty

• Event April 29: Defence Disrupted: Technology, Readiness, and the Future of Canadian Defence

  • Put on by IBM Canada

• Citizen Lab: Uncovering Webloc: An Analysis of Penlink’s Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech

  • “Webloc is a global geolocation surveillance system that monitors hundreds of millions of people based on data purchased from consumer apps and digital advertising. It was developed by Cobwebs Technologies and is now sold by its successor Penlink.”

• The Conversation: Canada’s cybersecurity sector has a pipeline problem — and a glass ceiling

  • By Sepideh Borzoo, Atefeh (Atty) Mashatan, and Rupa Banerjee from Toronto Metropolitan University

• Harassment as Infrastructure: How Telegram’s design enables TFGBV

  Cybersecurity Strategy in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan

  • Natto Thoughts is one of the best sources for research and analysis on Chinese cyber, so go give them a follow.

• Parliament is holding a few hearings on AI this upcoming week:

  • April 13, House of Commons Industry and Technology Committee: Opportunities, Risks, and Regulation of AI in Canada’s Strategic Industries

  • April 14, Senate Transport and Communications, Examine and report on the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in the information and communication technology sector

  • April 15, Senate Transport and Communications, Examine and report on the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in the information and communication technology sector

• DND is holding public engagement sessions related to NORAD modernization infrastructure projects in the North, some of which will include information infrastruture

  • Inuvik: April 21

  • Yellowknife: April 23

---

United States News

• Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure

  • Ongoing warnings to all critical infrastructure operators.

• Trove of sensitive LAPD records leaked in data hack of city attorney’s office

  • It’s hard to find a more corrupt police department than the LAPD in the US (there are receipts for this), so it's unsurprising that this has happened.

• CIA director quietly elevated agency’s cyber espionage division

  • This should not be a big surprise and is likely the direction for many Western human-intelligence organizations, but should be a major concern. The CIA has been in the game for a while, but it’s generally been a tertiary tool. The use of privately developed exploits and spyware sold to governments and private actors is greatly proliferating, and this will increasingly endanger civilians and the general public.

• Dark Web Market Lists Alleged 375TB Lockheed Martin Data for $600M

  • By a group “APT Iran”

• Massachusetts hospital turning ambulances away after cyberattack

  • Healthcare is one of the favorite targets for cyber threat actors.

• Minnesota governor sends national guard to county after cyberattack

  • There is previous precedence for this in Minnesota. The importance of such actions are not always about skilled cybersecurity knowledge, but sometimes about additional labour to have people on hand to run programs, click through prompts, physically remove infected hardware from networks for additional work and recovery, etc.

• FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database

  • Deleted signal messages recovered, along with a charge for “Antifa” activities.

• Trenchant Exec Says He Had Depression, Money Troubles When He Decided to Sell Zero Days to Russian Buyer; Also, New Info Reveals Nature of His Work for Australian Intelligence Agency

  • A pretty common set of conditions that often leads to insider threats.

• Treasury Department announces crypto industry cyber threat sharing initiative

• Inside the FBI’s router takedown that cut off APT28’s ‘tremendous access’

• Inside the Army’s new data operations center and its ‘sprint’ to help fix digital headaches

  • DND/CAF are also dealing with various digital headaches, but I am not sure I would describe them as being in a similar “sprint” to fix them.

• Suspect Arrested for Allegedly Throwing Molotov Cocktail at Sam Altman’s Home

• Senator launches inquiry into 8 tech giants for failures to adequately report CSAM

• Florida investigates OpenAI for role ChatGPT may have played in deadly shooting

---

United Kingdom and European Union News

• Cyberattack hits Northern Ireland’s centralized school network, disrupting access for thousands

• Russian government hackers broke into thousands of home routers to steal passwords

  • Edge devices will always remain a priority target for all cyber threat actors.

• France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins

  • This is after France dropped Teams and Zoom in January. It’s not clear what distro they’re using, which, honestly, they may not want to make too public but also likely something that will be determined later.

• Russia accuses former Radio Free Europe journalist of aiding cyberattacks for Ukraine

• U.K.-based Chevin cyber incident disrupts U.S. fleet operations (H/t Catalin Cimpanu)

  • The attack is targeting fleet management software.

• Greece to ban under-15s from social media from next year

  • I would not be surprised if we begin to see this in many more Western countries. Unsure how successful it will be in Canada, but hte liberals are interested in a similar ban.

---

Other International News

• Russia supplies Iran with cyber support, spy imagery to hone attacks, Ukraine says

• A hacker has allegedly breached one of China’s supercomputers and is attempting to sell a trove of stolen data

• Eurail says December data breach impacts 300,000 individuals

• Espionage for repression: hack-for-hire phishing campaign targets civil society in MENA (h/t Catalin Cimpanu)

  • Hack-for-hire is slowly growing as a viable option for cyber criminal groups.

---

Have your business and logo featured in Canadian Cyber in Context with a sponsorship.

---