On The Wire

A New International Advisory on the Growing Cyber Threat to Civil Society

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security has joined an international consortium of cybersecurity and law enforcement agencies in warning the public about the growing threat to civil society which is deemed high risk for state-sponsored cyber threats. The high risk community of individuals and organizations includes nonprofit, advocacy, cultural, faith-based, ...
Continue Reading
/

Iranian Nationals Charged for Sprawling Cyber Campaign

The tension was ratcheted up last week in the latest round of cyberwar with the unsealing of an indictment in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, charging four Iranian nationals with carrying out a malicious cyber campaign targeting federal government agencies, Pentagon contractors handling classified information ...
Continue Reading
/

Trial Tactics: Is There a Rule Against Second Guessing?

What is the result on appeal when trial counsel did not object to the judge's instructions to the jury? An opinion released today by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in a tragic manslaughter case highlights the broad rule that a failure to object by trial counsel is a non-controlling ...
Continue Reading
/

The Ability to Control Data Is a Protected Privacy Interest

The British Columbia Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling of a trial judge excluding a critical pocket-dial recording from evidence at the trial of Samandeep Singh Gill that resulted in his acquittal for the murder of Manbir Singh Kajla. The recording of the alleged shooting was seized by the ...
Continue Reading
/

From the Hands of Third Parties: Privacy and Internet Protocol Addresses

The Supreme Court of Canada has held that internet protocol addresses attract a reasonable expectation of privacy in a ruling that will have wider implications for the private sector including internet service providers, search engines and artificial intelligence generators. The concentration of personal data in the hands of private corporations ...
Continue Reading
/

Law Enforcement Disrupts LockBit and Taunts Administrator

A sprawling operation by an international consortium of law enforcement agencies has seized the infrastructure and website of the notorious LockBit ransomware group. Over the last five years the seemingly untouchable purveyor of ransomware-as-a-service rapidly grew into one of the most prolific hacking enterprises in the dark web ecosystem infiltrating ...
Continue Reading
/

On the Cybersecurity Front: Volt Typhoon and Warzone RAT

The disruption of a botnet and the seizure of internet domains selling a remote access trojan have recently turned the cybersecurity focus on the detection of stealth methods deployed by state sponsored and financially motivated actors. Described as the defining threat of our generation a botnet known as Volt Typhoon ...
Continue Reading
/

Search Warrants and the Doctrine of Severance

The right of all Canadians to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure protects the right to privacy from unjustified state intrusion. The purpose of the right requires that unjustified searches be prevented before they happen and not merely condemned after the fact. This can only be accomplished by a ...
Continue Reading
/

Purpose and Prejudice in Charter Litigation

The meaning of a constitutional right is ascertained by an analysis of the purpose underpinning the right. Purpose is understood in light of the interests a right is meant to protect. In a case winding its way through the Court of King's Bench of Alberta at Calgary, Alberta, an application ...
Continue Reading
/

The Spy Hunter and a Russian Oligarch

A former counterspy has been sentenced to prison by a New York court for his unlawful work for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. When he entered the guilty plea to violating U.S. sanctions against Russia stemming from its aggression in Ukraine he told the court he knew his investigative work for ...
Continue Reading
/