The poor state of cybersecurity of some of Ontario’s school boards, child welfare agencies, municipalities, and hospitals worries the head of the province’s expert panel that just evaluated the condition of the broader public sector.
“Some townships, small municipalities are really struggling,” Robert Wong, former chief information officer (CIO) of Toronto Hydro and currently a member of the board of Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, said in an interview. He is particularly concerned about smaller institutions and their smaller financial and personnel resources.
Usually when an organization reaches what he called “critical mass”, it has “a few dedicated [IT] resources,” he said. “But from what I gathered, there are some that still don’t … They may have one person who is a ‘jack of all trades, and running IT and cyber is ‘Other duties as required.’”
His committee’s report was submitted to the province several months ago, but because of the provincial election over the summer and the appointment of a new Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, wasn’t publicly released until last month.
Among other things, it concluded…
