BCNET News
BC’s Higher Ed and Research Institutions Take Part in CANARIE’s Joint Security Project to Strengthen Cybersecurity Posture
We are pleased to announce the participation of all 25 public, post-secondary member institutions, as well as four research institutes in the CANARIE Joint Security Project (JSP). The initiative was developed in partnership with the Government of Canada to enhance the cybersecurity posture of Canada’s higher-education and research ecosystem. The project is allocated $4.2M in federal funding for Canadian colleges, universities and research institutions.
As a partner with CANARIE in Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN), BCNET is committed to working with our national partners to continually strengthen the security stance of the NREN ecosystem. The resources that are available through the JSP initiative will help to strengthen an institution's ability to mitigate cyber threats and improve upon its intrusion detection capabilities by gaining access to critical knowledge, training, and tools
“Cybersecurity is a top priority for our member institutions. This a great opportunity for our members to participate, contribute and build a broader community of security specialists to strengthen the overall security posture of higher education and research institutions in British Columbia and across Canada."
Bala Kathiresan, President & CEO, BCNET
Benefits of the Joint Security Program
JSP participants are provided with an Intrusion Detection System and funding support from CANARIE to enable a member of their technical staff to collaborate on the project. All JSP participants benefit from regular training and collaboration sessions with cybersecurity experts from across the Canadian research and higher education community. In addition, they have access to data aggregation and security analysis tools that will provide both institution-level and aggregated, JSP-wide cybersecurity analytics.
Three Key Security Outcomes
Mark Wolff, CTO of CANARIE, adds, “With 140 institutions participating in the Joint Security Project (up from 40 participants in the pilot phase), CANARIE and these institutions are working to strengthen the network security fabric sector-wide. JSP supports three key outcomes: adoption of a standard network monitoring tool; development of key analytics that may prompt both institution and sector-wide prevention and mitigation strategies; and the development of a cohort of cybersecurity experts that learn from each other and collectively work to improve the network security posture of the ecosystem. This initiative complements other network security projects, notably the NREN Security Project, which has BCNET and its NREN partners deploying a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) system, developing a set of cybersecurity processes, and building a cadre of network security experts.”
“With 140 institutions participating in the Joint Security Project (up from 40 participants in the pilot phase), CANARIE and these institutions are working to strengthen the network security fabric sector-wide."
Mark Wolff, CTO, CANARIE