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 […]
Canada’s NREN bolsters security with MANRS Read More »
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
SniffPass boosts US infrastructure cybersecurity Read More »
For the last two years, Cybera has facilitated a Shared Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) program for its members. The origin of this program dates back to 2017, when Norquest College and Lakeland College teamed up to share a single CISO: security expert Curtis Blais, who remains the Shared CISO today. Having a Shared CISO
Advice for Alberta institutions looking to make use of a Shared CISO Read More »
Picture this scenario: It’s a few days before Christmas. You awaken in a panic and rush to the airport. While running through the terminals, you unknowingly take a wrong turn, and instead of boarding a plane to Miami, you instead board a plane to New York City. Is this the plot to Home Alone 2:
Global validation (on the networking scale) Read More »
Working with the Alberta Association for Higher Education Information Technology, Cybera will expand the learning, cybersecurity, and purchasing power of the province’s education sectors. In a move that will increase the technology capabilities of Alberta’s educational institutions, while reducing costs, the Alberta Association for Higher Education Information Technology (AAHEIT) has voted to join with Cybera’s
Cybera and Alberta education institutions expand collaborative partnership Read More »
The Canadian Security Information and Event Management initiative, which launched in 2019, has brought together security analysts from across the National Research and Education Network (NREN) to share information and best practices, and collaborate on new cybersecurity tools. One of the more interesting tools they recently implemented was from an idea that came out of
Open source “password sniffer” fights back against online phishing Read More »
To combat rising cybersecurity threats to education and research organizations, Alberta’s 26 post-secondary institutions (PSIs) are teaming up to collectively share information and strategies to enhance the security and privacy of their digital assets. Facilitated by Cybera, this first-of-its-kind collaboration will not only save time and money for individual organizations looking to tackle these issues,
Alberta post-secondaries come together to fight cybersecurity threats Read More »
In early 2019, Canada’s 13 provincial, territorial and federal partners in the National Research and Education Network (NREN) began implementing a new security platform to coordinate protection of this critical infrastructure. The Security Information and Event Management initiative will improve our identification, management and response to cyber security threats, thereby strengthening the overall security of
National team of security analysts collaborating to secure Canada’s R&E network Read More »
Protecting children’s privacy online is a top-of-mind concern for educators. But for the IT administrators tasked with this job, the “hows” of doing so can be complex and multi-faceted. One good place to start is through managing the online accounts that students create to access their learning tools (such as G Suite for Education, Adobe,
Looking To Protect Your Students’ Data? Start With Their Login Accounts Read More »
Cybera is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the first procurement for a new national Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) infrastructure. The SIEM initiative involves a collaboration of 13 provincial, territorial and federal partners of Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). The proposed solution will enable all partners of the NREN to
Canada’s Research and Education Community Strengthens Cybersecurity Read More »
As global hacks and data breaches continue to dominate headlines, Alberta educators are moving to increase the sophistication of their security tools, while collaborating on a joint line of defense. Last month, Alberta’s ShareIT procurement program added security services to its catalogue of offerings. In addition, ShareIT is now offering a learning platform for members
ShareIT Adds Security Services and Knowledge-Sharing Opportunities Read More »
Intel recently raised awareness of several new vulnerabilities that affect its hardware processors. The vulnerabilities, known as L1 Terminal Fault, or “Foreshadow”, enable malicious users to obtain sensitive information from a processor's cache that should normally be secured and unaccessible. The Foreshadow series of vulnerabilities is particularly dangerous in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud
Foreshadow: What you need to know about the IaaS vulnerability Read More »
In early 2016, we got wind of a potential (distributed denial-of-service) attack on one of our school members. We contacted the network administrator there to investigate what was going on (sometimes it’s simply a case of the school doing a lot of downloading at one time, which means we don’t need to do anything on
A behind-the-scenes look at Cybera’s network security activities Read More »
Two new cloud-based systems from Cybera and CIRA are giving educators “defence in depth”, while improving the cost and flexibility of their online systems The rise and increasing pervasiveness of the internet in our work, education, and play has also led to the rise of malware, spam, and harmful websites. Firewalls are a necessary tool
Early in the Pokemon Go craze, several articles warned that the game’s Terms & Conditions offered poor protection for the private details of those who downloaded the app, as it provided full access to users’ Google accounts. Clearly the majority of players did not read this policy (or care, if they did). At last check,
Online privacy and security — whose responsibility? Read More »