Kelowna International Airport seen in August, 2023. Facilities in Windsor, Ont., and Kelowna and Victoria all grappled with the cyberattack on Tuesday.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
The hacking of screens and public-address systems at three airports in British Columbia and Ontario should spur governments to ensure public readiness for disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks, a top federal official told a security conference in Vancouver Thursday.
Members of the opening panel at the second annual Vancouver International Security Summit agreed that Canadians are woefully unaware of wide-ranging efforts to disrupt public institutions, interfere and stoke division online among different groups, and to steal money or information from private companies.
Larisa Galadza, associate assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, told the crowd of roughly 225 security, policing and intelligence professionals that even if this brief hacking incident appears to have been a political stunt, it still has shaken the public’s sense of safety.
“Whether you agree with the protest point or not, you think, ‘How the heck did that happen?’ Especially since these are not big organizations,” she said, referencing the regional airports that were targeted.
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Facilities in Windsor, Ont., and the B.C. cities of Kelowna and Victoria all grappled with the cyberattack. Transport Canada said it’s working with police to ensure the safety and security of the facilities was not affected, and to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Sam Samaddar, the chief executive of the Kelowna airport, told The Globe and Mail that the unknown hacker exploited the third-party cloud software used across the different facilities.
Ms. Galadza, who rejoined the federal government last year after nearly four years serving as Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, told the conference that society will be harmed if such cyberattacks cause widespread fear. That’s because, she said, insecure people are more closed-minded and prone to embracing divisive political movements and short-sighted investment strategies.
“We know that by geography, we are the second-largest country of the world, but – if we fully internalize that – our biggest attack surface is our people and cognition,” she said.
Larisa Galadza at her residence in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May, 2022. Ms. Galadza is now the associate assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa is trying to do a better job of explaining to Canadians the types of threats they face in order to build resiliency across society, Ms. Galadza said. That outreach is being challenged as many people now get their news from social media. This makes society more vulnerable because those platforms are “actively being manipulated” by foreign governments, she added.
Still, she noted that before the last federal election, Ottawa worked to disclose efforts by other countries to interfere in Canada’s democracy.
“Explaining to Canadians what they’re up against proactively helps them understand when they’re being manipulated, helps them understand how to pivot their own industries, their own businesses, and it helps them understand why the government needs to make the investments that it needs to make,” Ms. Galadza said.
Another panel Thursday on the current state of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance discussed how Denmark has had some success “pre-bunking” public susceptibility to disinformation, by warning schoolchildren about manipulation and educating them on how to spot it.
Panelist Linda Weissgold, former deputy director for analysis with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, told The Globe that smartphones, and now generative AI, have dramatically increased the capabilities of those intent on committing online harm. Those tools also make it harder to prove a cyberattack was sponsored by an enemy state, she said.
People need to understand how connected many crucial electronic devices are, from fridges and cars to ATMs and hospital diagnostic tools, said Ms. Weissgold, who personally briefed former president George W. Bush for two years and now teaches at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington.
And after recognizing their dependence on this convenient connectivity, they also need to understand that these systems are vulnerable and that governments can’t stop every attack, she added.
“The hackers and others, they only have to get it right once to wreak havoc,” Ms. Weissgold said.