Blog
ALBERTA BROADBAND STRATEGY AIMS TO CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE BY 2026
Today, Premier Jason Kenney and Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish released the long-awaited Alberta Broadband Strategy 2022: connecting Albertans, growing the economy. Cybera was pleased to see many of the initiatives we have previously advocated for in the new strategy, which we believe are necessary to create vital connectivity links in the province. The strategy […]
Cybera cloud helping Alberta school protect student privacy
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta offers several lesson plans to help students protect their privacy on the internet, including one titled “Getting the Toothpaste Back into the Tube: A Lesson on Online Information.” The lesson’s main takeaway is that, once something is put online, it’s almost impossible to take back offline. As […]
HackED Beta gives tech “newbs” a chance to try out a hackathon
This past November, the University of Alberta’s Computer Engineering Club held its fifth annual HackED Beta — “Alberta’s friendliest beginner hackathon,” of which Cybera was a proud sponsor. The 24-hour coding competition is geared towards beginner programmers who are either in high school or the first two years of post-secondary education. It aims to provide […]
Rapid Access Cloud user profile: PinterEC explores remote video capture
Periodically, we like to chat with one of Cybera’s Rapid Access Cloud users, to find out what fun and innovative projects they’re exploring on our cloud. In this post, we talked to Chris Pinter, CEO of PinterEC Technology Projects, a research and development firm that works with companies to build high tech solutions. Pinter is […]
Data science fellowship helps companies and emerging data scientists flourish
Last August, Cybera’s Data Science For Albertans (DSFA) team wrapped up its 2021 industry fellowship. This was the third year we offered the program, which provides an opportunity for emerging data scientists to get real-world experience, while assisting local organizations along their data science adoption journey. Five industry partners, from a variety of sectors, participated […]
Summer hackathon highlights Alberta’s neuroscience skills
Many people may not be aware of this, but Alberta is a global leader in neuroscience — the study of the brain and brain behaviour — and, increasingly, the development of neurotechnologies, i.e. the practical applications of this science. One organization that is aware of this fact, and is doing everything in its power to […]
Cybera newsletter — Fall 2021
Cyber Summit is just days away! The annual Cyber Summit will run November 8-10. The conference will kick-off with two half-day workshops: an immersive workshop from Softchoice and AWS on leading your educational institution through its cloud journey, followed by a look at how higher education is implementing Multi-Factor Authentication. This will be followed by […]
Alberta’s public shared procurement program surpasses $30M in savings as more security offerings added
Alberta’s ShareIT public procurement program has passed the spend milestone of $50 million since it was implemented in 2017. This equates to a total estimated savings for its members of +$30 million (over their average education discount rate). This milestone comes as the program adds a variety of new firewall hardware, licensing, and services to […]
Network use jumps in 2021-22 school year
It’s hard to believe, but students are now in their third year of schooling while dealing with COVID-19. During each year – and each interruption – Cybera has seen wildly different network traffic patterns. While I do plan to write about our experience as a whole, I’ll save that for the post-new normal. For now, […]
Canada’s NREN bolsters security with MANRS
The partners in Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN) are pleased to announce today that Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security, or MANRS, has been implemented on the majority of Canada’s research and education networks. Ninety-nine per cent of organizations connected to the NREN are now connected to a MANRS-compliant network. An industry-led initiative championed […]
SniffPass boosts US infrastructure cybersecurity
Last year, we wrote about a novel security tool that Cybera’s security team had made open source. The “plaintext password sniffer,” or SniffPass, was first developed by the University of Alberta’s security team to detect and secure their institution against phishing attempts or insecure online passwords. Cybera’s security analyst made SniffPass available in Zeek, a […]
City of Calgary becomes first municipality in Alberta to offer eduroam
The City of Calgary has become only the second municipality in Canada to offer eduroam (education roaming), a global internet access service for the higher education and research sector. This means any staff or students from any eduroam-connected organization — including local post-secondary institutions as well as ones from around the world — can automatically […]
Cybera Newsletter – Summer 2021
This past 2020-21 fiscal year was a record-breaking one for Cybera, both in terms of the number of services we now offer to our expanding member community, and also the savings achieved by those services. But those savings go beyond dollars and cents. Keep reading ShareIT facilitates over $27 million in savings This past quarter (April […]
Growing our value to the community
This past 2020-21 fiscal year was a record-breaking one for Cybera, both in terms of the number of services we now offer to our expanding member community, but also the savings achieved by those services. Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, Cybera’s combined services achieved over $16 million in gross savings for its […]
New report takes a comprehensive look at Alberta’s internet gaps and opportunities
After a year of researching, Cybera (Alberta’s not-for-profit technology accelerator) has unveiled a comprehensive update to its State of Alberta Digital Infrastructure Report. This timely analysis comes as internet connectivity and access to high-speed broadband have taken on heightened levels of importance in the province, due to COVID-19. The updated report, first published in 2014, […]