Regardless of which service model an enterprise employs from a cloud provider, what remains prominent is that there are shared responsibilities of cloud security. The burden of maintaining secure infrastructure does not solely lie on the client or the provider, but is instead distributed between the two. Statistics Canada reports the number of police reported cyber crimes increased 164% between 2016 and 2020. Furthermore, the introduction of Bill C-26, which makes reporting cyber attacks mandatory, was in large part because many incidents were going unreported. Therefore, even though the publicly known number of cyber threats is significant, the actual number is even larger. Considering cyber attacks are increasingly becoming more common, now, more than ever, the integrity of the relationship between clients and their cloud provider is critical to success.  (more…)

Historically, the field of cybersecurity has been largely unregulated, with little to no requirements needed to be met by corporations. Recently, health centers, municipalities, universities, and other Canadian businesses and organizations have been targeted by electronic espionage and ransomware. In many instances, the attacks go unreported because the corporations fear their reputation may be damaged if word spreads that their existing security was incompetent. Often corporations decide it is in their best interest to pay the ransom fee in order to dismiss the problem, rather than to reach out for external assistance. Recently, the Government of Canada has introduced a new Canadian cybersecurity bill forcing corporations to prioritize mandatory reporting of cyber attacks and the meeting of new security standards. (more…)

And What Separates A Cloud Provider From The Rest 

Given new technological advancements in recent years, businesses, and in particular certified public accountants (CPAs), have displayed trends which suggest a strong push towards modernizing their infrastructure. Thus, we will be going over why CPAs are migrating to the cloud in the first place, and what makes certain cloud providers desirable. For many businesses and organizations the lack of modern features exhibited by their existing on-premise servers has warranted the transition to remote, cloud hosted, infrastructure. Migrating to the cloud, although difficult, likely proves to be a worthwhile investment. In recent years, for businesses and organizations who made the switch to the cloud, the experience in this field of technology has equipped them with the understanding of what services are appropriate for their needs, and what is unnecessary. In particular, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers who specialize in support and security have seen a surge in popularity. Furthermore, the prevalence of privacy laws has motivated businesses and organizations to maintain compliance and operate entirely with Canadian built and owned infrastructure. (more…)