Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 05

8 / Canadian Government Executive // January/February 2021 2020 was a year of immense change. The rapid acceleration of people and processes going digital faster than ever before oc- curred in the wake of one of the worst global health crises in almost a century. The pandemic also forced many to work remotely and gain access to their informa- tion online to maintain productivity and business continuity. cybersecurity By Brian Chidester Catalyst for Change Implications for the Canadian public sector in the aftermath of the SolarWinds breach T he remaining weeks of 2020 were made even more trou- blesome in the United States after one of the largest breach- es in American history was discovered. Beginning as early as March, SolarWinds unknowingly sent out a soft- ware update that contained a malicious code. This code allowed for a point of en- try to its customer’s information systems to be accessed, which hackers utilized to install malware in an attempt to monitor and spy. Months later when the company realized what had taken place, thousands of customer’s data had been breached, including many well-known Fortune 500 companies and American agencies. The aftermath of the SolarWinds data breach has set the stage for not only a height- ened awareness of just how devasting and