Fourteen police and IT security experts have been named to the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance’s newly-created cybercrime advisory council, to inform the high tech lobby group on policy and help police forces learn how to leverage technology.
In an interview Tuesday morning just before the advisory council was to start its first working session, CATA chief business officer Wennekes said the idea of the council came from a 2014 cybercrime conference CATA held with chiefs of police. “They all said ‘It’s great to learn more how to protect our data, our systems, but the other side of the story that isn’t being told is the criminal investigation component and the (technology) challenges there — identifying, managing, tracking digital evidence, and even common issues like not having a central lexicon (of technology terms) and a central resource of knowledge.”
Kevin Wennekes said the association wants to not only identify major technology issues facing law enforcement in fighting cybercrime but also to help CATA showcase leading Canadian innovations from its corporate members.
“It’s clear cybercrime respects no boundaries, be they geographic or an individual’s own home or business walls,” he said. “It will be critical this council seeks out and secures the future involvement of other key stakeholders not only in Canada, but globally as well. The work is only just beginning and we will welcome the interest and support of other law enforcement, academic, government and corporate partners.”
The advisory council will help define cybercrime, establish a dictionary of technology terms, identify capability gaps, recognize and promote champions and expertise, outline needed research and establish a toolkit of innovative technologies and services available to law enforcement agents.
The advisory council is another way Canadian organizations and infosec pros are coming together to help fight cyber crime.
Members of CATA’s cybercrime advisory council include
— Chief superintendent Jeff Adam of the RCMP, who as director general of technical investigation services oversees the forces’ technical investigative support in a number of areas including cybercrime;
–Eldon D. Amoroso, former director of support services for the London, Ont. police service and currently a public safety consultant;
–Superintendent Paul Beesley, director of the Ontario Provincial Police’s behavioural, forensic and electronic services;
–Dr. Mourad Debbabie, president of the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance Canada;
–Patrick Doyle, who teaches graduate courses on law enforcement information-sharing and security topics;
—Benoit Dupont, scientific director at the University of Montreal’s Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE);
–Ritesh Kotak, a consultant to police departments, organizations and government on using social media and digital technology;
–Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection;
–Eugene Ng, cybersecurity leader for Eastern Canada for the accounting MNP LLP;
–Christine Robson, IT manager for the Durham (Ont.) Regional Police;
–Peter Sloly, a former Toronto deputy police chief and currently an executive at Deloitte Canada, where he specializes in modernizing organizations and cyber crime;
–Norman Taylor, president of the Global Network for Community Safety;
–Scott Tod, deputy chief of police of the North Bay (Ont.) Police Service;
–and Alan Treddenick, director of national security at BlackBerry.
Formation of the advisory council comes after CATA released a Canadian Law Enforcement Cybercrime Priorities and Needs Report last fall after holding a national policing cybercrime summit.
Its recommendations included creating regional cybercrime centres of excellence, more collaboration between law enforcement, governments, industry and academia, more people and technology devoted to fighting cybercrime, an updated federal lawful access policy, more attention to critical infrastructure threats and a national cybercrime strategy.