Canadian Cyber News Rewire - #32 (15/08/26)
Wiring you into the cyber news relevant to Canada the week ending August 15 2026
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The Canadian Cyber News Rewire is a survey of Canadian cyber and adjacent news stories from this past week (or recently). Questions or business inquiries: info[@]cyberincontext.ca.
Canadian Cyber in Context Updates
It is official: I will be defending my PhD dissertation, “Why States Hack the Planet” on September 11. I will maintain my posting with the Weekly Rewire, but I also have a busy month of writing two book chapters + prep defence, so I may be a tad quiet.
I have reopened the Canadian Cyber in Context survey. Thank you to those who have already taken the 30-second survey. Changes are already being integrated!
Canadian News
Majority of Canadians oppose government support for AI data centres, poll shows (The Globe and Mail)
Not a big surprise. This will continue to get worse until the federal government understands their current policies are asinine and shows they have no idea how to govern emerging technology and cyber because they’re a bunch of marketers who have no idea what they’re talking about half the time, except parrot what they’re told.
RBC, BMO to sell Moneris to Francisco Partners in $2 billion deal (CTV News)
Canadian companies just love to sell out Canada to Americans. This is a major hit for Canadian digital sovereignty in financial transactions. Moneris is essentially the backbone of Canada’s entire retail and commercial economy. Francisco Partners is an American company, which means that the United States government will have extremely easy access to Canadian financial data. The Government of Canada should stop this sale.
Ransomware attack on Health Sciences Centre affects doors, ventilation and air conditioning (CBC News)
The largest hospital in Manitoba has been hit with ransomware. While still major, it is only affecting maintenance systems for now, such as door access, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. This is still dangerous, but the hospital currently claims that patient care is not impacted.
Motion to halt AI data centre proposals in Sault Ste. Marie withdrawn before vote (CBC News)
Shows that even “smaller” data centres are coming under scrutiny.
Motion removed after 90 minutes of debate. Discussion centred around a cybersecurity monitoring and training centre, which would include a data centre, by Protexxa and Missanabie Cree First Nation that would leverage AI to identify and resolve cyber issues for organizations and governments of various sizes. It’s expected that councillors will present a new motion at the next meeting on Aug. 31 directing city staff to develop a municipal framework specific to data centres in the city.
Gig terrorism: Russia’s sabotage war on Europe and Canada (Yac News)
Canada is usually not included in these discussions, so I am glad that, for once, people are recognizing that Russia is doing the same thing here.
Teqare expands cyber safety for First Nations wealth (SecurityBrief Canada)
First Nations and Indigenous peoples are often more exposed than others due to lack of access to training and education in cybersecurity, so I am always a fan of organizations or businesses that specifically try to reach at-risk groups.
What it takes for Canadian tech to enter defence (Betakit)
An article about one of Canada’s five Global Innovation Clusters, DIGITAL, that is launching a defence market access series to help Canadian
Canadian tech firms are selling to foreign buyers when it’s time to scale, CCI says (Betakit)
The Council of Canadian Innovators release a new report on Canadian companies scaling up and the difficulties it entails.
Government ‘dependent’ on U.S. companies to meet public service AI needs: study (Ottawa Citizen)
News coverage of a new journal article that supports what myself and many others have pointed out: the government’s current approach to AI and digital sovereignty is not actually supporting digital sovereignty.
Closing the Gap: Inside the Strix-DIGITAL Alliance (Vanguard Defence)
Strix and DIGITAL sign an MOU aimed to help bridge information and communication technologies and aerospace innovation ecosystems.
Prediction markets’ arrival in Canada increases temptation for insider trading, securities experts warn (The Globe and Mail)
This doesn’t just increase the temptation, this this will lead to insider trading and national security leaks. We have seen already that prediction markets lead to significant amounts of fraud and corruption.
Ford says Ontarians ‘misinformed’ about data centres as province releases AI playbook (Global News)
Ford doesn’t know what he is talking about; nonetheless, there is a lot to like about the playbook.
Ontario Launches Data Centre Playbook (PDF)
Core principles are: 1. Data centres must invest substantially, both financially and non-financially, in Ontario and local communities. 2. Data centres pay the full cost of electricity. 3. Ontario will only offer non-financial support to attract data centre investments.
INVISIO secures Canadian Armed Forces framework worth up to SEK 450 million for tactical communications and hearing protection (Defence Industry Europe)
Swedish-owned Invisio secures a standing-offer contract for hearing protection and communications equipment. Specifically covers Racal Acoustics-branded RA5100 tactical headsets, RA71 control units, associated cables, spare parts, and sustainment services.
Why North Korea’s AI-Backed Hackers are Coming After Canada (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada)
Good resarch article introducing what DPRK (North Korea) are doing to target Canada and the Indo-Pacific through cyber operations.
Halifax Water admits warning dismissed as ‘spam’ after 16 customers’ personal information compromised (The Chronicle Herald)
A privacy breach affecting 16 customers fixed after the initial warning about the vulnerability went to their spam folders in February 2026. It sounds like they may have been contacted by a cybersecurity researcher, but their email went to spam. Luckily the researcher followed up in March. This could have been much worse.
Canadian law faces a new challenge from smart glasses: What happens if someone records you? (CTV News)
Glad to see this as there is a need for great attention and review of pervert glasses. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner looked “wearable computing” in 2014 and should return to the subject to advise the government on existing application of law towards pervert glasses.
Personal data status unknown after Crowsnest Pass cyberattack (The Hamilton Spectator)
First time I am seeing that the Alberta municipality of Crowsnest Pass was hit a few weeks ago. Very little information has been released about the incident thus far it seems.
Military satellite deal could set stage for new battle over cabinet secrecy (CBC News)
This shows the conservatives are unserious. They could easily call for a review or even for Conservatives to review it without making the entire thing public. While I am certainly in favour of the government releasing more information, but advocating for it on a one-by-one basis highlights that Conservatives are still treating defence as a political issue.
Ontario Investing over $1.1 Million to Protect Workers in Waterloo Region from Tariffs (Government of Ontario)
This includes defence, which means cybersecurity as well.
Government of Canada invests close to $2M in quantum sector with support for Femtum (Government of Canada)
Femtum specializes in lasers for use with photonic chips.
Minister Valdez announces more federal procurement opportunities for Canadian small businesses (Government of Canada)
Most Canadian cyber firms are SMEs, so this has the potential to support Canadian cyber.
First Nation’s lawsuit challenging license to divert water to Kevin O’Leary’s data center can proceed (Canadian Lawyer Mag)
Plans to build a $70 billion data centre derailed after Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation lawsuit says it was not conulted when Municipal District of Greenview obtained a water license to divert water from the Smoky River near Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation land. Alberta appears to be on a roll of not consulting Indigenous groups of late.
New data from Canadian researchers show how Russian, U.S. interests are targeting Alberta separatist debate (The Globe and Mail)
US and Russia both interefering in Alberta.
Parliamentary News & Upcoming Meetings
House of Commons and Senate meetings that are relevant to Canadian cyber.
Parliament has begun its Summer break and will resume sitting on September 21.
Canada-Relevant News
Many cyber issues don’t respect borders. This section is for stories that impact Canada, but may not be Canadian-sourced or focused.
BMW Owners Angry ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Ads Are Suddenly in Their Cars: “F*** This” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Most new cars are massive boxes of privacy breaches. Those who focus on Chinese EVs are showing their ignorance. All cars are surveillance threats, not just Chinese.
NIST wants to overhaul its vulnerability database for the AI age (Cyberscoop)
Canada (and the world) relies a lot on NIST, so anything they do will impact Canadian activities.
FBI says cybercriminals are hacking into victims’ online accounts to steal their intimate pictures (TechCrunch)
This has been on the rise for the past few years, so it is concerning to see it continue and likely become more severe, warranting such a statement from the FBI. Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting children, and this is leading to a major, international problem of children being targeted for extortion and abuse.
McDonald’s Built a 515-Page Dossier on Me. It Says I’ll Never Stop Eating There (Wired)
This is why we need to ban surveillance pricing. Major companies are already tracking everything we do, and some are already integrating unethical tracking and surveillance pricing.
This Coin-Sized Device Can Hack a Boeing 737 (Wired)
This is not connected to the recent Delta incident, but is a major concern nonetheless. Airplane cybersecurity has historically been pretty bad.
Nine PBS sues Iron Mountain over blocked access to archival data (The Current)
This has nothing to do with Canada, but this should be a massive warning to everyone.
Apple sends new ‘Threat Notification’ alerts over mercenary spyware attacks (BleepingComputer)
Apple sends out new notifications related to spyware attacks, these are often targeting journalists and human rights groups.
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility (404Media)
I guarantee you that this is happening in Canada. Books are being bought up everywhere.
Canadian Cyber Threat Intelligence
Any relevant cyber threat intelligence to Canada will be posted here. I only list the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s (CCCS) alerts & guidance here, not all advisories; follow the full feed here.
Alert - AL26-018 - Vulnerability affecting Cisco ASA and Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software Remote Access SSL VPN - CVE-2026-20349 (Canadian Centre for Cyber Security)
Joint guidance on opportunities for artificial intelligence in cyber defence (PDF)
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security joins Australian, New Zealand, and UK counterparts to release guidance on using AI in cyber security and defence.
FBI, South Korea warn of Gunra ransomware gang targeting critical infrastructure (The Record)
Gunra is using a Conti-derived ransomware to target critical infrastructure.
New Mirai-Based Linux Botnet ‘Evooo1Bot’ Turns Victims Into Proxies (Infosecurity Magazine)
Canadian Events
Ottawa - October 17 - OWASP Ottawa Day 2026 (Google Forms)
The Ottawa chapter of the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) has opened its call for papers for its OWASP Ottawa Day.
I was invited to submit and present, so I hope to see some of you in October!
Ottawa - November 19-20 - BSides Ottawa (BSides Ottawa)
I have been working with the BSides Ottawa folk to help put together the Policy Village for the past couple of years and will be doing so again this year.
INCYBER is quickly becoming one of the go-to conferences for cyber in Canada. I will likely be attending this event.
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AI News
Due to the pace of AI and amount of news each week, this section will be dedicated to important AI news to keep the other sections more focused.
Company Offering ‘100% Human-Written, Never AI’ Medical Research Is Entirely AI (404Media)
Large language models are the best plagiarism and fraud tools ever created.
Mark Zuckerberg Posts Deranged 6,500-Word Essay About Giving Everyone AI Superintelligence (404Media)
Zuckerberg thinks inflicting harm on everyone and profiting off of it is empowering. Meta is a harm producing company.
Mark Zuckerberg’s AI manifesto is exactly why people don’t like AI (TechCrunch)
Zuckerberg likes a future where he only has to deal with technology with the same humanity and emotional depth as he.
Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models (TechCrunch)
Good. LLMs are best for plagiarism and fraud and it’s time we treat them as such and watermark everything produced by LLMs.
More than half of AI-generated patches are broken (Cyberscoop)
Not a big surprise here. AI helping support cybersecurity, but it still provides countless flaws in everything it does, so errors still exist and will for the foreseeable future.
AI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions (Wired)
AI companies are helping to reverse all the reductions in pollution and are degrading the Earth at unheard-of rates, for something we cannot even trust not to lie or be error-free.
The Real Reason Data Center Gas Power Plants Are So Dirty (Wired)
If data centres using gas power plants were not already terrible, apparently they’re using the absolute worst and least efficient kind as well. This has reversed all efforts to increase power efficiency of data centres.
Twitch Says Quiet Part Out Loud: Amazon AI Is Opt Out Because ‘Nobody Would Opt In’ (Aftermath.site)
Twitch is the largest streaming platform, and it shows why everyone who uses it hates it and thinks Dan Clancy is a terrible CEO. A clowncar of a company. When Amazon is your parent company, though, you have to set your expectations very low.
United States News
Delta investigating after someone set up fake Wi-Fi network mid-flight (TechCrunch)
Hacker on the way back from Hacker Summer Camp did something incredibly stupid and dangerous and will hopefully be prosecuted.
FBI investigating North Korean remote IT staffer working for US agency (Federal News Network)
Are hacks of U.S. water facilities a new front in the Iran war? (NPR)
Yes, but also no. It has always been a “front” for adversaries in cyberspace. People are just now realizing how little effort we, as a society, have put into actually protecting them.
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Expands Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime (White House)
Trump has authorized Homeland Security/his secret police to conduct offensive cyber operations against anyone they deem a criminal organization by hiring private contractors.
This is a terrible idea and will end very badly. I wrote an article about this last year when it was legislation in Congress. There is an argument to be made about more to be done, but this approach is terrible.
Trump turns to private sector in offensive hacking operations memo (CyberScoop)
News coverage of the above. Under any other administration we could have a legitimate argument about the merits of such an approach, but even in the most ideal circumstances this would require significant safeguards.
US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware (TechCrunch)
The Trump administration has reversed course on previous efforts to crack down on use and is increasing its use, so this is a great thing.
The Largest Data Center In California Has Been Denied Water For Cooling — Now It’s Suing A Public Agency (Yahoo News)
Despite the Colorado River drying up and putting millions at risk, companies are still demanding equal or preferential treatment.
United Kingdom and European Union News
Russia’s version of Starlink deploying quicker than planned, Ukraine’s military intelligence says (Kyiv Independent)
Spy cameras on Navy drones secretly sent data to China (The Telegraph)
“An investigation into the drones revealed that the cameras were transmitting “heartbeat communications” – data to confirm they were online and functioning normally – to an IP address in China.”
This is pretty bad. This is what happens when digital sovereignty is a secondary concern and the government doesn’t have mechanisms to verify businesses are following the law.
UK man tied to The Com sentenced for abusing 117 victims (Cyberscoop)
Every person part of The Com is amongst the worst humans in existence and deserves the fullest extent of the law to come down on these sick people who target children.
France investigates tax authority breach after hacker claims 600,000 victims (The Record)
Adds to the growing amount of breaches on French government orgs. An individual, not a criminal group, has claimed responsibility.
Germany moves to give spy agencies hacking and sabotage powers (The Record)
Germany is moving to adopt a posture similar to that of the US, Canada, the UK, France, and many others. Offensive cyber capabilities are needed to prevent and stop threat actors and to maintain initiative in the cyber strategic environment. This is after Russia has been targeting Germany extensively.
Turkey gives presidential cybersecurity agency power to order internet measures before court review (Stockholm Center for Freedom)
“Under the law, published in the Official Gazette on Friday, the Cybersecurity Presidency can act on its own or at the request of security and intelligence agencies on grounds including national security and public order.” This adds to the growing mountain of authoritarian powers Turkey has been developing over the last couple decades.
Russia Seeks to Build Sovereign AI With “Correct Values” — CCD (UATV English)
Not too different from what the United States has tried to do or warned about doing.
Other International News
UAE thwarts cyber attacks targeting energy and aviation sectors (Arab News) [H/t Catalin Cimpanu)
The UAE’s Cyber Security Council stopped cyber attacks targeting the country’s aviation, energy and education sectors
Taiwan says it was hit by ‘abnormal’ AI-assisted cyber-attack (The Guardian)
China’s Top Cybersecurity Firms Hit by Mounting Military Procurement Bans (Securityweek)
Growing regulation and enforcement is making things tougher for China’s cyber firms.