The first point I would make, Mr. Chairman, is the centre, which is under our responsibility, is directed at issues on the outside. So if I were to compare that with CSEC, they deal with cyber-threats to the government systems and respond accordingly. CCIRC, our response centre, therefore deals with threats outside, private sector, provinces, territories. So at the macro level, that is the first one.
The second point is that it essentially has a responsibility to take on calls when they come, informed by people who are facing a cyber-attack. They will assist the company or the person in establishing what kind of a threat they are facing, what kind of a malware they may be facing. After that's done and they're trying to support and respond to the person in question, since they called to inform us and look for assistance, they will also, after doing triage and understanding, disseminate information for people who may be facing a similar malware to protect themselves. So they do carry out notifications.
If I remember, in 2012 they carried out something like 11,000 notifications very broadly. That's basically their function. They are also responsible for training, communication, partnerships, and as I mentioned in my remarks, we also have now a portal that provides them and people with access to either information or advice.
The last point I would make, if I remember, again in 2012, their website was used something like 227,000 times. So there are quite a number of interactions with people asking a number of questions. This is not necessarily only cyber-attacks but information of all sorts.
So those would be, in a nutshell, the functions of CCIRC.