The IT Nerd

As the federal government prioritizes a Canadian sovereign cloud, Canadian cybersecurity professionals are also prioritizing made-in-Canada cybersecurity solutions.

New data from CIRA’s 2025 Cybersecurity Survey reveals that geopolitical risks are shaping vendor selection. Eighty-two per cent of experts say a country of origin has become more important when choosing cybersecurity providers, and just over half (56 per cent) have reconsidered U.S. vendors due to trade and political uncertainty.

The full findings are featured in this year’s survey report.

Key findings

• Geopolitics reshape vendor choices: 82 per cent now say a country of origin has become more important in selecting vendors, and 56 per cent have already reconsidered their use of U.S.-based providers due to political uncertainty.
• Training lags while threats escalate: nearly all organizations (98 per cent) conduct cybersecurity awareness training, but the frequency has remained unchanged since 2022-2023 even as threat actors grow more sophisticated and hostile.
• Paying ransomware is the new norm: one in four Canadian organizations (24 per cent) were victims of ransomware in the past year. Among them, 74 per cent had data exfiltrated and 74 per cent paid a ransom, typically $25,000 or more.
• Data breaches have surged: 42 per cent of organizations reported a breach of customer or employee data in 2025, up from 29 per cent in 2022.
• Generative AI is both adopted and feared: almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of organizations have integrated AI tools into workflows and operations (up from 44 per cent in 2023), yet 70 per cent are worried about AI-enabled cyber attacks, privacy breaches, data poisoning and advanced phishing.
  

Additional resources

• 2025 CIRA Cybersecurity Survey executive summary and resource centre.
• Full survey results (PDF)

Today CIRA announced the launch of CIRA Cyber Stack, a new streamlined portfolio bringing together its suite of cybersecurity solutions under one unified name. Cyber Stack consolidates CIRA’s trusted services, CIRA XDR, CIRA Cybersecurity Awareness Training, CIRA Anycast DNS and CIRA DNS Firewall into a single, integrated portfolio designed to help organizations build digital resilience against a fast-evolving threat landscape.

What began as a single cybersecurity solution with CIRA Anycast DNS has steadily evolved into a layered, integrated portfolio that organizations across Canada can trust. Cyber Stack simplifies how IT professionals working alone or in teams integrate and deploy new solutions into existing technology stacks for layered protection. Rooted in Canadian identity, the new portfolio works as an integrated shield and evokes the layered strength of stacked logs, as a sturdy, long-lasting, homegrown protection.

Cyber Stack will debut today at SecTor 2025 (booth #1011) and Canadians Connected in Toronto, and will roll out across customer platforms in the coming days. Although the suite is built for combined strength, each CIRA cybersecurity product will continue to be available individually. Learn more at cira.ca/cyberstack.

Today, CIRA is proud to announce 13 transformative, community-led initiatives funded through its 2025 Net Good Grants program. From remote broadband infrastructure to youth-focused cybersecurity training, these projects are advancing internet safety, access and digital sovereignty across Canada.

Each initiative equips communities with the tools, knowledge and infrastructure they need to thrive in an increasingly challenging digital world. The collective impact spans most provinces and territories, reflecting a broad and diverse commitment to digital resilience from the ground up.

Key insights

• Over 270,000 community members will benefit from this year’s Net Good Grants
• Three infrastructure projects building community-managed connectivity networks
• Two policy engagement projects raising awareness and amplifying local voices in internet sovereignty discussions
• Eight online safety projects empowering youth, educators and community leaders

In British Columbia, communities like rural Shuswap region and Cortes Island are developing locally governed broadband co-operatives so that they can build, own and operate networks to directly serve their residents and generate revenue.

Initiatives like the Digital Defenders Project in Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, the SmartScroll Digital Safety Program in small-town Ontario and Cyber Ready Islanders in Prince Edward Island are helping young people recognize and respond to online harms, misinformation and privacy risks.

For professional development, the University of Ottawa’s CyberSafe Youth project is delivering cyber attack simulation training to youth in Quebec and Ontario, while the Malahat Nation in B.C. is establishing a cybersecurity operations centre and training hub through its Malahat Internet Safety Initiative.

Every initiative is rooted in local collaboration, underscoring a community-first approach to digital empowerment. These projects not only focus on youth development, but will also train educators, parents and community leaders, extending their impact through intergenerational learning and institutional partnerships.

Whether through civic engagement in internet policy, broadband infrastructure co-ops, or multilingual online safety programs, these projects exemplify how community-led innovation can drive systemic change and ensure no one is left behind in Canada’s digital future.

Resources 

• Discover more about the CIRA Net Good Grants program: https://www.cira.ca/en/grants/   
• Explore a decade of impactful projects supported by Net Good Grants: https://www.cira.ca/en/grants/history/   

CIRA is proud to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its Internet Performance Test (IPT), marking a significant milestone in the journey towards building a more equitable and accessible internet across Canada. Since the first test was captured in the spring of 2015, Canadians have run over 1.7 million tests, leveraging the tool and its crowd-sourced approach to better understand their connection. The platform allows local governments, advocates and researchers to track national progress toward closing the digital divide.

Over the years, the data collected through IPT has provided insight into how the internet is evolving across Canada. In its inaugural year, the national median download speed was just over 11 Mbps, with an upload speed of 2.4 Mbps. Fast forward to last year, the national median speeds soared to 92 Mbps download and 27 Mbps upload, showcasing incredible progress.

This milestone coincides with the launch of new CRTC hearings that will investigate how to improve the shopping experience for consumers to ensure they get the speed and quality they pay for.

Key insights

• A noticeable inflection point after 2019 suggests that increased government and private investments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—and its consequences on the online lives of Canadians—have significantly impacted connectivity.
• While rural speeds have improved substantially, the gap between rural and urban connectivity remains largely unchanged.
• Regional disparities persist, with New Brunswick enjoying relatively fast speeds, while the Prairies continue to lag behind.
• The far North, particularly the territories, shows the lowest connectivity levels, with median speeds well below half the national average.
• Latency—a critical quality metric that can lead to noticeable delays in online activities such as video calls, streaming and other real-time applications—highlights the challenges faced by networks covering vast territories. Areas such as Nunavut, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan exhibit the highest latency levels, indicating the need for continued investment in underserved regions.

• To learn more about the Internet Performance Test’s past decade of impact on Canada’s digital divide: https://www.cira.ca/en/ipt/history
• To run a test and learn more about CIRA’s Internet Performance Test, visit: https://www.cira.ca/en/net-good/internet-performance-test/   

Today, CIRA announces the premiere of the third season of its award-winning podcast, What’s up with the internet? centred around the rise of online misinformation. Returning fresh off a win for ‘Best Technology Series’ at the fifth annual Canadian Podcast Awards, this season of What’s up with the internet? is an eye-opening investigation to uncover the truth behind online lies.

Across six episodes, season three of What’s up with the internet? reveals the sources behind online misinformation, how it spreads, along with deep insight into the harm it does. Host Takara Small also walks listeners through a fact-checking toolkit with guest Matthew Johnson, Director of Education for MediaSmarts, so that more Canadians can feel equipped with ways to identify fact from fiction and verify what they see online.

This season features ongoing commentary and guest interviews from technology experts, media researchers and more. Guests for season three include journalist and business executive Sue Gardner, professor and author Timothy Caulfield, Michael Kropveld, Founder and Executive Director of Info-Cult/Info-Sect and more. Listeners can learn more at cira.ca/podcast and follow What’s up with the internet? on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, organizations require more sophisticated tools to protect themselves. CIRA, the national non-profit that protects over eight million Canadians with its cybersecurity products, is responding to this challenge by launching a new enterprise-grade service, CIRA XDR, that leverages an open-source codebase to protect organizations in Canada for which other solutions may be out of reach.

CIRA XDR is an affordable, professional-grade extended detection and response solution tailored specifically for Canadian organizations. Cybersecurity tools can generate overwhelming amounts of data leading to alert fatigue, long manual investigations and ad hoc mitigations from security teams. The struggle to keep up with the volume of “noise” produced by these traditional tools can hamper the ability to detect genuine threats. CIRA XDR leverages advanced analytics to reduce false positives, providing organizations with an easy and fast single-pane-of-glass view of potential threats with built-in automated response capabilities. The service can be integrated across multiple security domains—such as endpoints, identities, cloud applications, email and data stores.

Hosted in Canada by the team managing Canada’s internet top-level domain .CA, XDR ensures organizations’ data remains in the country. CIRA puts control back into the hands of Canadian organizations to manage threats and mitigate risks, all while contributing to the community making Canada’s cybersecurity posture stronger.

Key features

• CIRA XDR equips organizations with optional endpoint client software for log collection, threat detection and active response intervention.
• For organizations struggling to scale XDR solutions that require on-premise software or hardware appliance deployments, CIRA’s service runs with a lightweight agent and 100 per cent cloud data management and storage systems.
• XDR provides Canadian cloud-hosted SIEM & SOAR services for a robust, secure and scalable infrastructure with worry-free external management.
• XDR is pre-integrated into hundreds of security and application stacks to allow for rapid visibility and action across all IT infrastructure.

For more information about the service, visit cira.ca/xdr and learn more about CIRA Cybersecurity services by clicking on this link.

The time has never been better to help build a resilient internet in Canada, something that CIRA has been championing for years and has taken on a whole new level of urgency. A strong internet empowers Canada’s economy and provides opportunity for people across the country to build digital skills, start new businesses and advocate for their communities. This year, CIRA is launching the 12th edition of its Net Good Grants program offering over $1,000,000 in grant funding to boost community-led responses to Canada’s digital divide and strengthen our economy.

CIRA’s Net Good Grants provide financial support to organizations looking to research and develop solutions that get communities online safely, affordably and resiliently. CIRA empowers community-led initiatives to take the lead on addressing access and affordability challenges head on, with a focus on ensuring rural, Northern and Indigenous communities are heard and served. Communities and projects like these have benefitted from CIRA funding:

• Fort Smith Metis Council in Northwest Territories now have connectivity that offers emergency communications, safety, data mapping and enhanced recreational activities in the campsite area well outside the Fort Smith townsite, used year-round by youth camps, elders and tourists
• Malahat Nation in British Columbia is now running their own sovereign fibre internet service to community buildings and households that plugs into the single main line coming from the external ISP
• The first-ever Canadian Youth Internet Governance Forum, a platform for young Canadians, convened to discuss and advocate around internet policy, access to connectivity and youth leadership

CIRA Net Good Grants 

For its 12th edition, CIRA’s Net Good Grants will award each project up to $100,000 with a total investment of over $1,000,000. This investment is a key part of Net Good by CIRA’s commitment to build a more sustainable online future for Canadians everywhere. The funding will power essential projects in three core areas: 

• Infrastructure: connectivity research, network planning and solutions to improve internet access, speed and affordability. 
• Policy engagement: events, research and policy ecosystem work that broadens public awareness in domestic internet policy and governance. 
• Online safety: research, educational frameworks, tools, consultations and training programs that increase Canadians’ safety against cybersecurity threats. 

Applications will be accepted from every province and territory with a focus on projects that benefit rural, Northern or Indigenous communities or K-12 and post-secondary students. CIRA especially encourages applications for eligible projects in the Prairies, Quebec, the North and the Maritimes to help ensure funding reaches traditionally underserved communities. 

 Who is eligible to apply? 

• Organizations recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency as registered charities; 
• Not-for-profit organizations; 
• Indigenous communities; and 
• Academics and researchers affiliated with a Canadian university or college. 

Last year, CIRA awarded a total of $1.25 million in grant funding to 15 community-led internet initiatives that improve the lives of Canadians online. For the 2025 edition, a distinguished cross-Canada panel will review, select funding applications and notify all applicants of the grant decisions by July. Organizations are encouraged to submit their application before the deadline on April 9, at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. A webinar in English on March 4 at 1 p.m. ET and in French on March 5 at 1 p.m. ET will be hosted for all interested applicants.

Additional information 

• To apply for a grant or be notified about the webinar: https://www.cira.ca/en/grants/ 
• For more information about CIRA’s commitment to building a trusted internet for Canadians, visit www.cira.ca/en/net-good/ 

About CIRA  

CIRA is the national not-for-profit best known for managing the .CA domain on behalf of all Canadians. As a leader in Canada’s internet ecosystem, CIRA offers a wide range of products, programs and services designed to make the internet a secure and accessible space for all. CIRA advocates for Canada on both national and international stages to support its goal of building a trusted internet for Canadians by helping shape the future of the internet. 

Today, CIRA is proud to unveil a completely redesigned version of its popular Internet Performance Test (IPT) as part of its Net Good program. First launched in 2015, CIRA’s Internet Performance Test enables Canadians to test their mobile and home broadband performance across dozens of data points while gathering comprehensive and accurate data on broadband coverage and quality nationwide. The latest version of IPT provides users with an enhanced test-results dashboard, to ensure users understand critical aspects of their internet performance including how their connection supports common online activities like streaming services or video calls.

While Canada has made great strides to bridge the digital divide in the past few years, there is still work to be done to ensure the speeds that are being promised are actually attained. The new IPT will allow Canadians to verify whether they are receiving the speeds and quality of service advertised. CIRA will then leverage Canadians’ anonymous broadband data and real-world daily experience to help municipalities, local and federal governments and consumers create a heat map of where connectivity upgrades are most urgently needed.

Key features

• The new user interface guides participants intuitively through the testing process, improving accessibility for users of all technical backgrounds.
• Enhanced user interface makes running a test faster and easier on smartphones, tablets and desktops.
• Through a new, interactive dashboard, users can now explore trends and performance data from previous tests, gaining a deeper understanding of internet performance changes. These insights empower individuals, researchers and policymakers to track progress and identify gaps.
• More accurate user location estimation improves the quality of location-specific internet performance data, which is vital in analyzing broadband access across regions or within a community or neighbourhood.

To run a test and learn more about CIRA’s Internet Performance Test, visit: https://www.cira.ca/en/net-good/internet-performance-test/

With more than eight million people protected by CIRA Cybersecurity Services, the organization is looking to encourage more Canadians to join the flock by launching its first major cybersecurity advertising campaign. The digital campaign is inspired by the country’s most fearsome foe, the Canada Goose, who is ferocious in defence of its goslings, its place on the sidewalk, or a crust of bread. The mighty goose reflects CIRA’s fierce commitment to protecting Canadian institutions, small businesses and individuals who are at risk of cyber attacks.

CIRA practices cyber protection the Canadian way, which means building a flock of partners and institutions across the country to implement effective, adaptable, accessible and robust cybersecurity solutions tailored for families and organizations without compromising customers’ data safety and sovereignty.

With increased cyber incidents across all sectors of the economy including schools, municipalities, universities and hospitals, Canadian organizations need to assume a defensive formation to protect against cyber criminals with increasingly complex and effective tactics. This campaign showcases how CIRA is using its 20 years of expertise in technology, Canada-wide infrastructure, and partnerships with organizations and governments across the country to help fight back against cyber threats. CIRA is proud to offer services and solutions designed to tackle evolving Canadian and international online security threats while reinvesting in free tools such CIRA Canadian Shield to protect all Canadians and make the internet a safer place.

Developed by award-winning Toronto-based agency, Agnostic, the campaign will run across social media and digital platforms.

Learn more about CIRA cybersecurity services

Last night at a special event at ICANN 81 in Istanbul, CIRA and SIDN took the next step in their mission to empower the domain name community and improve the industry by unveiling the new brand for their value driven and community focused platform: Hello Registry.

CIRA and SIDN announced their partnership last year at ICANN 78 in Hamburg where they committed to co-developing the product previously known as the CIRA Registry Platform.

Hello Registry was chosen as the new brand as a reflection of the goal of the new platform, to create a network of like-minded TLDs who are committed to innovation, shared values, and building a collaborative online community; and as you know, every community starts with “hello”.

Key Facts

• Managed and created by two of the most respected TLD operators in the world with strong influence over internet governance: SIDN and CIRA
• Highly reliable platform from two TLD operators with more than 60 years’ experience providing 100% uptime
• Created from the ground up as a platform to empower TLDs to grow their business and build healthy online communities
• Continuous innovation through iteration. Every TLD onboarded adds to the platform’s feature set and the community’s shared knowledge
• Patented tags feature provides a business rules engine for a registry to easily manage variable pricing models, roles, access and administration. Registries can also customize notifications and messaging.

Visit helloregistry.nl or helloregistry.ca to learn more about the community that they are building and visit them at ICANN 81 in Istanbul at our booth in the main hall and say hello!