Essential services like health care facilities, small businesses, and non-profit organizations in Canada will be getting free cybersecurity services, until September 30, 2020, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) recently announced. CIRA is a non-profit organization that manages the .CA domain name registry on behalf of Canada. It also offers a suite of cybersecurity services.
CIRA is offering free access to CIRA DNS Firewall for all hospitals and health care facilities regardless of size; and free access to CIRA DNS Firewall for small businesses with 100 users or fewer. The new initiative will help the critical businesses and services in the country protect against the growing number of cyberthreats in the wake of COVID-19.
In addition, CIRA is providing access to a new free service “CIRA Canadian Shield” for all small businesses to protect their network systems and personal devices from phishing and malware attacks while working remotely. It is also allowing access to a free cybersecurity awareness training course for educational institutions, students, teachers, and remote workers who are learning and working from home.
“As health care workers work tirelessly to protect us, small businesses pivot online and teachers educate our kids from home, the value of a safe internet has never been clearer. To provide some relief to these organizations who are keeping Canada running, we are making our malware and phishing cybersecurity service free to help these impacted communities. We are also delivering some permanent solutions for Canadian households,” CIRA said in a statement.
CIRA’s technologies and services like D-Zone DNS Firewall helps support its goal of building a better online Canada.
Jacques Latour, Chief Technology Officer at CIRA, said, “Canada’s internet is holding strong against this unprecedented situation. Unfortunately, bad actors will always try to exploit a crisis. As such, CIRA is extending access to the infrastructure and tools we use to keep the .CA domain system safe to those who are helping to keep Canada running.”
Canada’s COVID-19 Cyber Defense Force
SecDev Group in Canada recently initiated a volunteer-based program wherein it called upon Canada’s top cybersecurity and IT professionals to join the COVID-19 Cyber Defense Force in order to protect the country’s key services and critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The Group’s vision and mission are crystal clear:
- No ransomware attack should close hospital operations
- No cyberattacks should affect any patients’ treatment; and
- No form of essential services should be affected by any cyberattack
SecDev Group has also collaborated with Zeropoint to provide VPN strategies and access control to governments and companies and help them adapt to cybersecurity monitoring to accommodate a workforce that is majorly working on distributed remote desktops from home.
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