University of New Brunswick to partner with Canadian Forces on cybersecurity

An upcoming partnership between the Canadian Armed Forces and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) has been announced in an effort to bolster online security through training and research.

It’s a small portion of the newly released Canadian Defence Policy.

Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced on Wednesday morning that the partnership is being finalized between the nation’s armed forces and the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity, located at UNB.

“Minister (Harjit) Sajjan is anxious to finalize the partnership,” LeBlanc announced. “To ensure that the very considerable potential of jobs and economic opportunity and high quality global excellence can in fact be delivered here in Fredericton.”

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While the details of the partnership are still being worked out it’s already expected that UNB will assist with research to better mitigate online threats as well as provide training for positions that will be created as the policy is rolled out.

“UNB, and New Brunswick frankly, is offering leading edge education and training,” LeBlanc said.

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According to Dr. Ali Ghorbani, the director of Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC), the announcement means they will be able provide better opportunities, but it will also give the CIC the chance to work with other institutes and government agencies.

“We can provide short term or long term professional degree programs for national defence staff and on the research side we can also provide skills to people in order to work on the type of problems that they have right now,” Ghorbani said.

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LeBlanc expects the training of cyber operators, a new Canadian Armed Forces occupation dedicated to combating cyber crime, to take place in Fredericton and provide many new job opportunities for those in the IT and defence sectors.

“We will be recruiting and hiring over the next number of months hundreds and potentially thousands of new people who will be able to provide this work for the Canadian Armed Forces and for the security of Canada,” he said. “So we think between Base Gagetown, the University of New Brunswick, the Cybersecurity Institute and the Canadian Security Establishment, this defence agency, there are numerous examples of partnerships that will benefit Canada and New Brunswick.”

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