Canadian Cyber News Rewire - 16/05/26
Wiring you into the cyber news relevant to Canada the week ending May 16
The Weekly New Rewire is a survey of Canadian cyber or adjacent news stories from 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:
I have received a hefty round of feedback on my PhD thesis, so I may be a tad quiet outside the weekly Rewires. If you wish to contact me, feel free to email info@cyberincontext.ca.
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Canadian News
Government of Canada and TELUS advance work to build sovereign AI infrastructure
Telus plans AI data centre expansion in B.C., including two new centres in Vancouver
Telus is building two data centres in Vancouver and expanding an existing facility in Kamloops, which together will require 150 megawatts of electricity by 2032.
Deal reached with hackers after Canadian universities hit by security breach
I’m not a fan of calling the payment of ransoms under duress a “deal.” Makes it sound amicable.
Accelerating commercialization and adoption of AI and quantum technologies in British Columbia
$17.3 million investment in eight businesses in BC.
Global Affairs Canada Transformation Implementation Plan (2023 to 2026)
GAC is underway with plans to strengthen cybersecurity by enhancing its security operations centre to include cloud threat detection and response.
A lot of coverage of Bill C-22 this week, compiled below:
U.S. Congress warns Ottawa’s lawful-access bill could weaken defences against hackers
Ironic that Americans sure love to create these risks for everyone else, but suddenly have a problem when another country ignorantly tries the same.
Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill
Major Canadian online privacy company Windscribe plans to leave country if lawful access bill passes
This could maybe quell concerns, but not sure if it would fully make up for a lot of the problems in Bill C-22.
Major VPN provider says it could leave Canada over lawful access bill
NordVPN joining others to say C-22 sucks and they would leave Canada.
All the big consulting firms will be getting in on the CPCSC action.
3rd investigation launched into Alberta voter database accessed by nearly 600 people
The RCMP, Elections Alberta, and now Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner have all begun investigations into the leak of Alberta’s electoral roll.
B.C. gov’t ‘embracing the opportunity of AI,’ premier tells Web Summit
Canada Declares Digital Independence, But ‘Sovereignty Is Not Solitude’
Coverage of Minister Solomon and many of the platitudes he brings to the situation.
Canada Stands Shoulder to Shoulder with the Philippines at Exercise BALIKATAN 41-26
CAFCYBERCOM participated in this exercise.
Canada second globally for ransomware, Fortinet says
Additional coverage of Canada as a top target for ransomware operators
Lithium is in almost everything electronic, so this is big news that’ll be welcomed by critical minerals folk.
Canada’s cybersecurity agency to get access to OpenAI’s latest model, sources say
Only OpenAI’s so far, haven’t heard anything about Claude Mythos yet.
Ontario Auditor General Report: Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Ontario Government
Interesting information in this report, particularly related to use in healthcare…
Medical AI transcriber for Ontario doctors ‘hallucinated,’ generated errors: auditor general
Hallucinations remain very common with AI, especially LLMs. This is why the rush to adopt them is dangerous.
PowerSchool hack was a ‘significant breach,’ says N.L. privacy commissioner
Unrelated to the recent Canvas incident, but is from January 2025.
Photo of 6-fingered woman shows N.L. government needs to ‘tighten up’ AI policy, Wakeham says
Official Newfoundland and Labrador government pictures are popping up with AI mistakes that could have been easily fixed.
Canadian Digital Regulators Forum hosting interactive workshop
Very interesting workshop taking place May 21.
Canada-Relevant News
As many issues don’t respect borders, this section is for stories that impact Canada, but may not be Canadian-sourced or focused, to differentiate from the previous section, which is 100% focused on Canada.
Google says hackers used AI to create zero day security flaw for the first time
OpenAI Launches ‘Daybreak’ to Help Build Secure By Design Software
Signal adds security warnings for social engineering, phishing attacks
This is after a prominent European politician fell victim to phishing attack.
Revealed: Israeli Tech Exposes Users of Musk’s Starlink Satellite-based Internet
OpenAI says hackers stole some data after latest code security issue
A hotel check-in system left a million passports and driver’s licenses open for anyone to see
Research repository ArXiv will ban authors for a year if they let AI do all the work
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 - AL26-012 - Critical vulnerability affecting Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN - CVE-2026-20182
84 TanStack npm Packages Hacked in Ongoing Supply-Chain Attack Targeting CI Credentials
SAP fixes critical vulnerabilities in Commerce Cloud and S/4HANA
Oracle Announces Move from Quarterly to Monthly Critical Security Patches
A sign of the times as Oracle moves to release updates on a more frequent basis.
Google Threat Intelligence Group report on the increasing role of AI in cyber threat activity.
Linux Could Soon Disable Vulnerabilities Without a Reboot: Kernel Killswitch
In response to recent vulnerabilities, a runtime “killswitch” has been proposed.
Behind the Scenes Hardening Firefox with Claude Mythos Preview
Article from Mozilla on the use of Claude Mythos for Firefox.
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Research, Op-Eds, and Events
Q&A: Vass Bednar on why Canada is at risk of remaining a digital 51st state
Vass Bednar is the Director of the Canadian Shield Institute.
The Canadian Shield Institute continues to do tremendous work.
Software was never designed for perfect security – and now we’re paying the price.
A good article by the great security researcher Halvar Flake
Timeline of Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Stuxnet and Fast16 Attacks
Kim Zetter puts together a new timeline that includes the Fast16 attacks.
United States News
Foxconn confirms cyberattack impacting North American factories
An update on last week’s story, which turns out to be ransomware.
Congressman launches inquiry into how food retailers use surveillance pricing
This one will be watched by Canadians. There’s currently an active debate at the federal and many provincial levels regarding how to address surveillance pricing.
Pentagon deploys Anthropic’s Mythos to patch cyber gaps while planning to ditch firm
This is probably not going to look good for the US Government in court.
Cisco cuts nearly 4,000 jobs to spend more on AI, reports ‘record quarterly revenue’
Cisco has always been scummy, so this is not a big surprise.
This is concerning, but it is unclear the degree to which this could impact things. Could theoretically cause a major economic disruption by automatically affecting the readers all at once. Iran is suspected, but I can’t help but recall many of Israel’s attacks on Iranian gas infrastructure over the last few years.
Trump says he and Xi discussed cyberattacks and spying between US, China
“They’re talking about the spying. Well, we do it too,” the president said. “We spy like hell on them too.” - Trump
United Kingdom and European Union News
Kaspersky Lab co-founder says FSB unit overseeing internet blocking has ‘no idea’ how networks work
UK water company allowed hackers to lurk undetected for nearly two years, regulator finds
UK moves to shield security researchers in cybercrime law overhaul
A great move by the UK. Security researchers are integral to how NATO and allies maintain cybersecurity.
German political parties leave X: should other European politicians follow?
Good on German political parties. Canada must do the same. The Government of Canada remains on X. There is no longer a large Canadian audience on X, so maintaining a presence there simply shows the government’s lack of concern for digital policy and that it does not actually care about reaching Canadians through social media.
UK fines water supplier $1.3M for exposing data of 664k customers
It’d be so cool if we actually had fines and penalties in Canada that were more than the cost of doing business.
European Commission head pushes creation of new law delaying teens’ social media access
Laws seeking to universally destroy privacy for people in order to do the job of parents and prevent children from accessing social media are very in vogue right now.
EU applies sanctions against Chinese and Russian cyber threat actors.
Other International News
Canada Buys Watch
I am still building. I plan to soon post more Canada Buysonce I have the time to build out the monitoring system.
Canada Buys: Security Control Centre IT Modernization Project
Royal Military College is looking for a replacement OT software-as-a-service solution.