2026-10-31 –, Track 1 (306B) Language: English
When you hear national sovereignty, do you think cybersecurity? Canada’s Arctic could be described as “the world’s most digitally vulnerable frontier”. This vast expanse of land is a highly coveted target, resource rich and strategically valuable for the Northwest Passage, a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans over which Canada has claimed sovereignty. But sparse population, limited critical infrastructure and aging defences leave it vulnerable. Canada relies heavily on its partnership with the US for military monitoring and defence in the region through NORAD. Surveillance is essential, but satellites, networks, radar, and ships can be targeted and compromised. As polar ice melts, Russian and Chinese vessels increasingly access the shipping routes. The US President has asserted the need to own Greenland, and boldly declared that Canada should be the 51st state. In a strategic course change of self-assertion, Canada is now committing tremendous resources to defence, technology and infrastructure. But does this address the risks to national sovereignty via our northern exposure and the cyberthreats we face with advanced technology? As Canada seeks to forge new alliances externally, and build its leadership capabilities among middle powers, securing our Arctic sovereignty against cyber threats is essential to guiding our way in a new world order.
Introduction 5 min
Everything Impacts Everything: The importance of understanding the big picture, increasing technology risks, and cybersecurity for national security.
Why this matters for Canada's Arctic and our sovereignty
- A target ripe for the picking: rich in resources.
- Arctic shipping route
Canada's Arctic: Status Report 10 min
- The imperative of securing a vast region with sparse population
- People don't realize just how vast our Arctic expanse is
- Who controls the Northwest Passage?
- High-value, strategic sea route that Russia and China increasingly covet and transit
- Climate change, melting ice increases the threat
- Canada's steep challenges in how to monitor
- Carney's Game Plan and big investment in defense and technology for national sovereignty
- A top-down commitment to Canada's cybersecurity must be recognized by government and corporate leadership with real budget commitments
Canada's Arctic: Defence Challenges 12 min
- The need for technology and innovation to counter the lack of persistent military presence and domain awareness
- A massive attack surface at risk from the impact of climate change, hostile competition from sophisticated adversaries
- Juicy military tech targets: especially with Canada's massive investments to update outdated monitoring and military systems through Canada's Strategic Renewal and Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy
- Canadian Coast Guard vessels: complex technological systems with numerous internal and external dependencies
- Satellites: critical for surveillance and domain awareness but vulnerable and increasingly targeted. With no domeestic launch capability, Canada relies on less secure third parties for launch capabilities. In August, The Federal Government announced a massive contract with Telesat to expand the satellite constellation for military purposes, to be built in Montreal but launched by ... SpaceX
- Communications and Cables: Canada lacks a robust enforceable telecom cybersecurity framework. Geopolitical tensions have manifested increased threats to fiber optic outages and damage to undersea cables. Arctic communication infrastructure is critically exposed to cyberattack and sabotage
- Radar: Essential to monitoring and defending. Systems vulnerable to signal spoofing, exploitation , jamming, network disruptions
- The risks of new attack types eg cyber kinetic
- Nuclear escalation is ongoing: weapons, submarines, more
Canada's Arctic: Cyber Threats & Attackers 12 min
- Cybersecurity cannot be Canada's Arctic Achille's Heel
- Understanding how Canada's strategic objectives look as targets.
- Where are we vulnerable - let me list the ways
- Show the risks from known/recent attacks:
- React2Shell: Next.js is used increasingly for military and gov't apps like ground-segment software etc for satellites
- Attack on Stryker Medical: how Infostealers provide initial access to privileged systems, trusted programs, weaponized tools
- Drift Protocol: how state-backed adversaries build sophisticated intel operations for long-term attacks to compromise governments, military and high trust agencies. Mistakes that are costly beyond monetary value
- Software Supply Chain Attacks: there's been a bevy of them, especially against code repos and LLMs. And now there's a building boom of AI and code to exploit
- Attack on NPM Axios: 2026 has been the year of NPM exploitation through inherent trust. Satellite systems software relies on numberous third-party open-source libraries.
- AI: Damn you Anthropic! But the grim reality is how the game has now changed and the ball is in the adversary's court to find all the vulnerabilities to exploit that we aren't prepared for
- Meet the Adversaries: China, Russia and proxy friends
- Foreign interference through disinformation campaigns
- Cyber espionage to gather intel
- Prepositioning in critical infrastructure for future endeavours
- Disruptive and destructive attacks
Canada's Arctic: Let's Do This 8 min
- Shared Lessons, Shared Defences: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden are way ahead on preparedness and resiliency. They are middle power friends we can learn from and unite with
- Common Ground Collaboration: mutually beneficial cybersecurity arrangements
- Recommendations/How we can do this better:
- Recognize the need for the people and resources to do the jobs now
- Step up as a technology leader in emerging technologies and leverage the resources already in place
- Middle Powers Unite! Strength through collaboration and mutually asssured cyber defences
- Conduct integrated threat assessments including cyber threats for these new objective
- Policy Recommendations: involve the Indigenous communities throughout. Integrate cybersecurity into Arctic Policy frameworks and establish guidelines,
- Because securing Canada's Arctic deserves a Whole of Nation Effort!
3 min Q&A time permitting
Cheryl Biswas is a Canadian cybersecurity analyst engaged in strategic threat intelligence, tracking trends and emerging threats, and helping defend critical infrastructure. Her work experience across various sectors includes KPMG, CP Rail and TD Bank. She actively engages in the security community as a presenter, podcast contributor, volunteer, and mentor. She helped found “The Diana Initiative” and champions women and diversity in cybersecurity. She loves to ask “What if …”