Weekly News Rewire - 10/01/26
Wiring you into the cyber news the week ending January 10
The first Weekly News Rewire of the year! As this is the first of the year and starting anew, I will be including some major stories from December. Future Rewires may be shorter, but likely have more commentary.
The Weekly New Rewire is a survey of cyber-related or adjacent news stories that I am following this week. Please leave a comment if you think there is anything that I missed.
Canadian News
CAFCYBERCOM
Covers the Five Eyes digital summit held in November. A major announcement that I am unsure was public before is that Canada and the United States signed a PKI Cross Certification Agreement. This is really big and means that interoperability between the United States and Canada will increase as PKI Cross Certification Agreement means DND/CAF and the United States military will develop infrastructure to ensure the seamless, secure authentication between networks and secure environments. I might write a larger article on this.
Thales and Cohere Partner to Accelerate AI Integration for Naval In-Service Support in Canada
Ottawa mulls fast-tracking patents for AI, quantum and critical minerals
Rogers launches national program to curb excessive screen time in youth
Rogers is launching a national program to help reduce screen use in youth after a new study found children between 11 and 17 years old were spending over five hours a day on their phones.
Fugitive wanted in connection with Desjardins data breach arrested in Spain
Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What’s on X
This is the month old announcement that the new Defence Investment Agency annouced a partnership with MDA Space and Telesat to develop military satellite communications for the military, particularly in the arctic. This was quite big news and very much needed as DND/CAF access to cyber and communications in the Arctic are quite weak at the moment.
Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner has announced that January 26 - 30 will be Data Privacy Week with the theme of “Prioritize privacy by design.”
Research and Op-Eds
The coming CUSMA squeeze and how security policy will rewrite the trade terms
Keith Jansa, CEO of the Digital Governance Council, publishes an op-ed with The Hill Times on the role of CUSMA (also known as NAFTA 2.0)
Canada’s trillion-dollar opportunity depends on data
Balsillie School Professors Ann Fitz-Gerald and Dmytro Chumachenko publishes and op-ed with The Hill Times on the importance of harnessing data for the economy and national security.
Canadians won’t let the U.S. government boss them around. But U.S. mega-corporations? Sure, why not
Journalist Justin Ling writes a great op-ed highlighting how Canadians are hypocritical when it comes to standing up for Canadian sovereignty against major US corporations.
Canada Cyber Threat Watch
While not all attacks are reported or receive media attention, any notable cyber attacks on Canadian organizations that make the news will be tracked here alongside any potentially relevant cyber threat intelligence that is relevant to Canada.
Freedom Mobile Announces Data Breach Exposes Customer Information
Cybercriminals Abuse Google Cloud Email Feature in Multi-Stage Phishing Campaign
Ransomware attacks kept climbing in 2025 as gangs refused to stay dead
Flare uncovers phishing campaigns scamming Canadians with fake toll and parking violation texts
Recorded Future: New ransomware tactics to watch out for in 2026
Qualcomm security advisory – January 2026 monthly rollup (AV26-006)
United States News
Canada often uses/relies on NIST research to inform many of its own standards and technological decisions, so this is something to keep an eye on.
Trump admin to revisit bedrock cyber policies as it implements new strategy
The Byte is the US Army’s 780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) publication
If you’re curious what concerns US military cyber organizations all you’ve got to do is look at what they’re publishing and writing.
US spy agencies contributed to operation that captured Maduro
US Cyber Command reportedly targeted Venezuela with cyber operations, but the extent is unclear. Rumors that cyber attacks took out electrical substations are likely untrue as OSINT indicates physical damage to electrical substations.
International News
United Kingdom release Government Cyber Action Plan
The UK’s cybersecurity activities are often a blind spot for me as I tend to focus on Canada and the US, but this action plan is not something to overlook as the UK is looking to completely overhaul its approach.
UK National Cyber Security Centre:
Germany Blames Russia for Cyberattack on Air Safety, Election Interference
One criminal, 50 hacked organizations, and all because MFA wasn’t turned on
Expressions of interest: UK-Canada compute mission
A UK Government delegation is forming to visting Canada to meet research, industry, and government experts concerning: Sustainable computing practices, Development of large-scale heterogeneous codes and applications, Challenge driven approaches to computational research for AI for Science, and Talent exchange and community building activities
Q&A
By popular demand, the Weekly News Rewire will now include an anonymous Q&A. Every week I will answer any questions that I receive through the Weekly News Rewire Slido here. Slido allows readers to anonymously submit questions and vote on questions that they would like to be answered. Each week I will open a new Q&A to submit questions to be answered in the following Weekly News Rewire.
Just one warning: Some topics I may be unable to fully comment on, but I will endeavour to provide as much information as I can within any constraints that I may be under.