As you suggested earlier, we're woefully behind, and not only in relation to investigating organized crime and its ability to use technology. Canada is in desperate need of a national organization consisting of educational partners, the private sector, and the police to better monitor some of the multitude of huge risks associated with the use of Internet cyber-attacks, not only on our critical infrastructure, but also in relation to policing and to regular citizens.
There's so much that's happening that we and the average citizen are not being kept aware of. I guess the best way to put it is that if we can get ahead of it with this national partnership that would include those three key partners—the private sector, government, which includes the police, and educational facilities.... There's that gap in protecting the average person in society from the predators who use the Internet for everything from viruses to infiltrating people's computers to obtain key information from them. There are things that are as simple as identity theft--and I mean it, it is simple today--right up to accessing key information that will allow them to commit serious fraud.
This model just does not exist anywhere in Canada today. There was an effort made to try to build this type of model with work by Ian Wilms and the Global Centre for Securing Cyberspace. There's an international appetite to commit resources and organizations to work towards this common end, but the reality is that it's not happening in this country, and the gap continues to grow. What we're seeing is victimization at the early levels, the youngest levels, with kids, right up to the senior levels, with seniors themselves, who are so open to being victimized by crime.
I don't know if this helps at all. The short answer is that there is an appetite for it at all levels.