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Canada\u2019s military is preparing for battle in cyberspace.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Armed Forces\u2019 newly established cyber command, called CAFCYBERCOM, recently deployed teams to NATO\u2019s flagship CYBER COALITION exercise in Estonia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The deployment comes as the alliance prepares for a future where cyberattacks on power grids, government services and military systems are treated as challenges to national security, not just technical disruptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyber conflict tends to mirror real-world politics,\u201d said Alexander Rudolph, a PhD candidate at Carleton University whose research focuses on Canadian cyber policy. \u201cAs tensions rise between states, cyber operations intensify alongside them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s CYBER COALITION exercise ran from Nov. 28 to Dec. 6 and brought together military and civilian cyber experts to rehearse responses to complex cyber incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CAFCYBERCOM, which was first launched in September 2024, contributed CAF personnel in Europe and an Ottawa team that operated remotely.<\/p>\n
Cyber capabilities are just one part of the CAF\u2019s strategic arsenal, says Christian Leuprecht, a distinguished professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyber would never be deployed on its own,\u201d said Leuprecht. \u201cIt would be used alongside other capabilities to achieve political effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cyber\u2019s growing role<\/p>\n
NATO describes CYBER COALITION<\/a> as the alliance\u2019s premier collective cyber defence exercise, designed to reflect how cyber conflict now unfolds: continuously, ambiguously and often below the threshold of conventional war.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an ever-expanding, complex, fast-moving problem,\u201d Rudolph said, adding that both state actors and criminal groups are now capable of producing similar levels of disruption, particularly when targeting civilian systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n A central concern is that cyber vulnerabilities do not respect national borders, says Rudolph. There is a risk that a breach in one ally\u2019s systems could\u00a0 be leveraged to compromise others across the NATO alliance.<\/p>\n