Canadian government urged to respond to computer data theft by panel of experts

Not so long ago, the Canadian government was criticized for being a little lax in dealing with the various data thefts that have plagued the past few days and which Canadians have been very affected by.

As a result, a panel of experts has decided to make a special request to the federal government to address its problems with the security of their fellow citizens' personal data. First, this panel calls on the government to impose penalties for employees who are negligent while also calling for a digital identification system.

Since 2008, it must be said that the personal data of Canadians has been at the heart of several rather significant data leaks. In addition to the Equifax case, we know that this summer, more than 2.9 million people were victims of theft of personal data from the Quebec company, Desjardins. As usual, the information that is stolen during these kinds of cyberattacks usually relates to names, dates of birth, insurance numbers, or social security. At the end of July, it was the turn of the American bank, Capital One. We know that 6 million Canadian customers have had their data leaked.And now last week, it's the fact of a credit rating agency, Trans-Union to be in turn a victim of data theft.

We are talking about more than 37,000 people who have had their data stolen. "We have a lot of computer systems and everything is based on the social insurance number (…) From a security point of view, this information could almost be considered public. There have been so many security breaches that you have to be completely crazy to think that a social insurance number is something secret. He was trying to recall Eric Parent, CEO of EVA Technologies, a cybersecurity company, at a press conference.

He was trying to explain that the current system does not really promote a safer framework for the protection of Canadians' personal data. In doing so, he is part of the panel that is calling on political parties vying for the upcoming federal election campaign to commit to ensuring a safer framework for voters' personal data.

for this group of experts represented by Eric parent, a digital identification system should be put in place, which would will have the heavy task of taking the place of the health insurance card and especially the driver's licence and for good reason, "It doesn't take not a genius to falsify a driver's license, but if it's an identity digital technology is more difficult. Explains the expert.

They draw their explanations from the example of some European countries that have already put in place this kind of system. "Sanctions for wilful blindness and neglect are essential. Eric Parent said. "If a bank authorizes a fraudulent transaction, it should take responsibility."

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