As cyber attacks are up 37%, 5 local security firms are helping teams keep secure with the increased risk of working from home.

While some countries, including Canada, have gradually re-opened the economy in recent weeks, the need for increased security protocols remains. There is plenty of statistics that support this concern: since the Covid-19 outbreak, Infosecurity Magazine reported cyber attacks up by 37% in the month of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 5x increase in attacks on its systems, and Forbes reported cyber attacks against hospitals had seen a significant increase.  

Furthermore, companies like Shopify, Twitter, and Facebook have committed to continuing to work from home even after the Coronavirus pandemic passes. The security risk that comes along with working from home will continue to rise as more work remotely. 

Now, more than ever, security is at the forefront of many people’s minds. According to a Pulse Security Report, security concerns involve awareness and training (59%), unsecured networks (56%), the use of personal devices (43%), sensitive data leaving the perimeter (41%), and rapid acceleration of workflows and apps moving to the cloud (33%). 

More specifically, these threat vectors include Malware, phishing, unauthorized privileged access, and vulnerability exploits.  

These 5 Ottawa security companies have created solutions and initiatives to help combat the increased security risk from working from home. 

Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)  

As the guardians of the .CA domain registry, CIRA has more than 20 years of experience protecting its systems from hackers. 

Recently CIRA took to answering the question: how can we leverage our expertise and technology to protect all Canadians and their families?  

The result was CIRA Canadian Shield, a free cybersecurity service available to all Canadians to provide malware, phishing and botnet protection, with DNS privacy for their devices and home networks. 

Working with their global partner, Akamai, who provides some of the technology behind their enterprise service CIRA DNS Firewall, and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, CIRA is now protecting more than 70,000 Canadians using Canadian Shield. To date, more than 1.5 million attempts to access malicious domains have been blocked, as Canadians enjoy DNS privacy and online protection that is typically only accessible to enterprise customers.  

CIRA Canadian Shield is completely free, easy to use, and adds a powerful level of cybersecurity and data privacy. 

Learn more at cira.ca/shield. 

Bluink 

Bluink, a local Ottawa security firm, helps organizations and individuals enable fast and secure identity verification and password-free login. Bluink’s secure identification solutions are helping companies like Calian, Nexera Law, Tehama, Car Loans Canada, as well as the Government of Canada (GOC) and Ontario, to conduct secure online commerce.  

As companies shift towards more remote work, Bluink is helping with remote identity verification and password-free logins to work portals through its eID-Me Identity as a Service platform.  

Their integration also allows Canadians to perform remote identity verification for services that have historically required a visit to a physical location. This ability includes signing up for financial services or accessing government services (even out of hours). Bluink’s solution allows organizations to verify identities online, in seconds, to an Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) per GOC guidelines.  

Learn more at https://bluink.ca/eid-me/demo. 

CybernetIQ 

CYBERNETIQ is a cybersecurity firm that created CLAW, a software platform that creates a 3D visualization of cyber threats. The software highlights risks that help security operators to orchestrate better, investigate, remediate, and collaborate with the vulnerabilities in their cyber strategy. 

When the Coronavirus pandemic first broke out, CYBERNETIQ began offering free cybersecurity risk assessments, branded ‘CLAWvsCOVID”. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had varying effects on Canadians. CYBERNETIQ began hearing the newfound struggles and fears of CISO, OT, and IT managers looking to close the gaps of an entirely virtual workforce while trying to maintain business as usual.  

CYBERNETIQ wanted to contribute to the community and to do its part in supporting the security needs of Canadian companies practicing remote work. They offer complimentary network risk visibility maps and work with any company looking to ensure its workforce is fully operational, effective and secure in these rapidly changing times. If interested, email them with “CLAWvsCOVID” in the subject line to get help to maintain resilient systems. 

Learn more at https://cybernetiq.ca/.  

Reshift Security & Software Secured  

Reshift is a developer-first code security tool that automatically finds vulnerabilities in custom code and provides real-time code remediation while fully integrated into the existing software workflow. 

Software Secured is a penetration testing service firm that helps technology companies continuously ship secure code while staying compliant. The firm also offers instructor-led secure code training, which helps development teams shift to secure coding practices. 

Since the pandemic, Reshift Security and Software Secured have teamed up to host a weekly webinar series for developers, security professionals, and technical leads. Each week, attendees are introduced to a new vulnerability from the Open Web Application Security Project’s Top 10 application security attacks. In addition, they are presented with real company cases of how that attack led to a cybersecurity breach, perform a hands-on lab and learn how to mitigate the vulnerability in their code.  

“Our goal is to help software development teams adapt to the new norm, learn new skills, and get out of these uncertain times with both stronger teams and stronger applications,” said Sherif Koussa, Founder & CEO, Software Secured and Reshift Security. 

The webinars have brought together teams from companies including CGI, Siemens, Titus, [24]7.ai, CIBC, Trend Micro, Knak, as well as students from Willis College and Northern Virginia Community College to learn about protecting themselves and their workplaces from cyber attacks amid COVID-19.  

The webinars are led by Reshift Security and Software Secured founder, Sherif Koussa who brings lessons learned from writing insecure code as a developer, along with years of experience as a security code review engineer and pen-tester, finding vulnerabilities in custom code. 

With attendees from over 20 countries, the series ’10 Weeks to Zero Critical Vulnerabilities’ has created a community of security-minded development teams. Sharing tools, resources and enjoying the odd joke, their security questions are answered by an industry expert each week. Registration is now closed for the 10 weeks session, but do not hesitate to contact Sherif with your questions.  

Learn more at https://www.softwaresecured.com/ 

or at https://www.reshiftsecurity.com/ 

About the Author

Olivia Harris is the Director of Marketing at reshift security. In her role, Olivia built this growing cybersecurity company’s strategic marketing initiatives from the ground up. She leverages SEO and automated tools to support website visitors in finding their way, creates high-value marketing collateral, and builds relationships with developers and security professionals to help their teams integrate better code security practices.