Disruptive Challenges Require Evolving Intelligence-led Solutions

In an era of rapidly evolving digital landscapes, cyber security intelligence stands as a crucial shield safeguarding the critical infrastructure that serves as the backbone of Canada’s economy, security, and way of life. This intelligence serves not merely as a defensive mechanism but as a strategic asset to help organizations anticipate, detect, and mitigate threats, ensuring the resiliency and continuity of essential services. Its significance is accentuated by the multiplicity of potential internal and external threats that do not recognize traditional geographical boundaries and can rapidly evolve to exploit vulnerabilities in critical systems.

埃森哲 published The Cyber-Resilient CEO earlier this year, and in partnership with CEOs, found that only 33 per cent of CEOs indicated a deep knowledge of the evolving threat landscape; with many unclear as to how to address the emerging risks posed by digital innovations that introduce additional complexity to business as usual. A small subset—the “cyber-resilient CEOs”—drive continuous resiliency by:

?Staying ahead of threats by engaging with cyber security service providers to gain sector-wide cybersecurity risk insights.

?Participating in knowledge-sharing initiatives with industry peers and cross-industry partners to facilitate the exchange of timely information.

The Strategic Role of Cyber Security Intelligence

Anticipation and Adaptation

Cyber security intelligence is fundamental to the resiliency of Canadian critical infrastructure. It underpins the ability to anticipate and adapt to both emerging and ongoing threats. By leveraging advanced analytics, threat intelligence platforms, and deep situational awareness, intelligence operations can forecast potential attack vectors, enabling the pre-emptive strengthening of defenses. This proactive stance ensures that infrastructure elements such as energy grids, transportation systems, and financial networks remain robust against disruption.

In its State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2023 study, Accenture found that organizations that experience better digital transformations, apply strong operational cyber security operational practices from the beginning. We found that a large percentage of these organizations used third-parties or managed services to administer cyber security operations, including threat intelligence.

Incident Response and Recovery

In the face of a cyber incident, the presence of a sophisticated cyber intelligence program is vital. It equips infrastructure entities with the necessary insights to respond effectively, minimizing damage and facilitating rapid recovery. Intelligence operations furnish technical indicators of compromise and actionable insights that are indispensable for coordinating responses across public and private sectors. This swift reactive capability is critical in maintaining the continuity of services that Canadians rely upon daily.

Earlier this year, Accenture and Google Cloud announced an expanded partnership to help organizations accelerate their cyber security resilience against cyber threats. This partnership will include Accenture’s Managed Extended Detection and Response (MxDR) service being powered by 谷歌 Cloud AI and the provision of crises management, incident response, and threat intelligence with Mandiant (part of Google Cloud) .

Navigating Internal Threats - Insider Risk Mitigation

The protection of critical infrastructure from internal threats requires a layered approach to cyber security intelligence. Employee training and security awareness programs are enhanced by monitoring and analytics to detect anomalous behaviors that could indicate insider threats. By integrating psychological and behavioural analytics, cyber security intelligence serves as an early-warning system, crucial for the prevention of potentially devastating insider-initiated disruptions.

As we considered in a previous article on insider threats, incident response and recovery processes can be amplified with rapid detection informed by internal intelligence gained by enhanced detection and threat/risk modelling through increased data exploitation, automation and orchestration in platforms found in security information and event management (SIEM), user entity and behavioural analytics (UEBA), and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools.

Countering External Threats

Geo-Political Awareness

Externally, cyber security intelligence plays a pivotal role in understanding the geopolitical context that often underpins cyber threats. Nation-state actors, listed terrorist entities, and transnational cyber criminals continuously target critical infrastructure, motivated by political, economic, or other strategic objectives. Intelligence agencies must dissect the intent and capability of potential adversaries, translating this into robust defense measures.

This is especially true for our Canadian federal government and national critical infrastructure assets. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), in its 2023-2024 National Cyber Threat Assessment report, indicated that state-sponsored actors continue to leverage newly identified (i.e., zero-day) vulnerabilities in commonly used systems.

Collaboration and Information Sharing

The complexity of external threats necessitates a collaborative approach to cyber security intelligence. Information sharing between Canadian entities and international partners strengthens all parties’ understanding of threats, leading to stronger, collective defense postures. Through alliances and partnerships, Canada benefits from a global perspective on cyber threats, which is integral for protecting its infrastructure.

Accenture supports initiatives to foster information sharing cross-industry and promote cyber threat intelligence initiatives. This year, Accenture was pleased to support the Public Sector Network Canadian Security Showcase 2023 in Ottawa, and the Canadian Insider Risk Management CoE | CdE canadien pour la gestion des risques internes 's Insider Risk Management Security Partnerships Summit 2023 in Toronto. By bringing Canadian security practitioner communities together, we can identify present-day challenges, as well as offer and develop collaborative solutions towards individual and collective resiliency. On an ongoing basis, Accenture’s CISO Kris Burkhardt , leads our Global Accenture Cybersecurity Forum (ACF), which is a forum that allows Accenture’s CISO clients to convene and discuss present-day threats, sharing their thought-leadership and expertise.

Conclusion

In summary, cyber security intelligence is indispensable to the fortification of Canadian critical infrastructure. Its value is pronounced in its capacity to inform and empower both proactive and reactive measures against a spectrum of internal and external threats. By investing in advanced cyber security intelligence capabilities, Canada not only protects its critical services but also ensures that its infrastructure can resiliently adapt to the complex and ever-changing cyber threat environment.

An Accenture point-of-view by Victor M. and Maryam Jafari, PhD, CISSP, GCTI, CCSK .