Cybersecurity

The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a k-12 school network analyst

Chris Sluggett leads the talented and highly commended Technology Services team at Wolf Creek Public Schools, a school district covering rural communities north of Red Deer. The breadth of responsibility for his team — from enabling online learning, to protecting student privacy, to keeping the lights on — can be overwhelming to outsiders. But it […]

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Step five of building cybersecurity: Implementing the CIA triad to combat risks

Part 7 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series Confidentiality, integrity and availability — also known as the CIA or AIC triad — is a model designed to guide policies and actions to build information security within an organization. Confidentiality The National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) defines confidentiality as:  “Preserving authorized restrictions on information

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Step Four of building cybersecurity: Identifying your risks

Part 6 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series What are some of the top cybersecurity challenges? Cybersecurity is continually challenged by hackers, data loss, privacy demands, and increased surface attack risks, coupled with the need to constantly evolve security strategies. These strategies must address these external threats, as well as internal pressures from any workforce

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Step three of building cybersecurity: Threats vs Attacks

Part 5 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series In our previous post, we defined “attacks” and “threats”, and provided a comprehensive list of the different threats modern organizations typically face. In this post, we’ll focus on attacks. What is an attack? While threats are not always intentional (e.g. natural disasters), an attack is an intentional,

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Step two of building cybersecurity: What threats do you face?

Part 4 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series Once you have developed a full inventory of your operational environment (as outlined in our previous post), the next step is to try and uncover the intentional and unintentional dangers they face. From a security standpoint, threats and attacks are two separate but critical issues. For network

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Step one of building cybersecurity: What do you Know?

Part 3 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series In our previous blog post, we talked about the importance of cybersecurity in the modern world, and the different kinds of “threats” and “attacks” institutions commonly face. Today, we’ll review how best to understand your operational environment in order to determine your specific cybersecurity risks. Knowledge is

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Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity Series

Part 1 – Introduction For cybersecurity to be effective within any organization, it needs to be addressed as a continual lifecycle. Every day, new attacks are developed, so existing methods to repel them must be refined and improved. Why is cybersecurity important? Cybersecurity matters to everyone, from governments and large corporations, to small businesses, individual

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What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity…how to eat an elephant one bite at a time Part 2 of Cybera’s Introduction to Cybersecurity series Cyberattacks are on the rise. According to the annual ITRC (Identity Theft Resource Center) Data Breach Report, there was a 68% increase in reported U.S. data compromises from 2020 -2021. Moreover, breaches related to cyberattacks represented more

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Cybera Security Nexus will help Alberta institutions plug their security gaps

As part of its new cybersecurity services for Alberta’s research, education, and public sectors, Cybera is pleased to launch the Cybera Security Nexus. This platform provides expertise and resources to help organizations assess, prioritize, and address their cybersecurity and policy gaps. The Nexus offers access to:  An industry recognized IT security assessment framework (available to

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Advice for Alberta institutions looking to make use of a Shared CISO

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

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Cybera security analyst works with NREN to identify, fix a vulnerability on FortiSIEM

This past November, we shared an interview with Cybera’s security analyst, Andrew Klaus, in which he talked about the new Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) initiative being carried out through Canada’s 13 provincial, territorial and federal partners in the National Research and Education Network (NREN). As Andrew noted, the biggest benefit of a collaborative

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Alberta post-secondaries come together to fight cybersecurity threats

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,

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