The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) cites major attacks such as one against the Colonial Pipeline which stretches across the north-east coast of the US, as well as against healthcare facilities.
The hack against the pipeline, which is the largest in the US, caused a full shutdown leading to price spikes and fuel shortages for millions of Americans.
The report from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which is a unit of the CSE, echoes similar findings made by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre last month, which said it had defended the UK from a record number of cyber-attacks in 2021 including those targeted at Covid-19 vaccine research centres.
This year has also been marked by the highest ransoms and the highest payouts, the CSE reports. In Canada, the estimated average cost of a data breach, a compromise that includes but is not limited to ransomware, is $6.35m CAD (£3.78m).
The Cyber Centre said it knew of 235 ransomware incidents...