The Cybercrime Gangs Targeting Canadians

Earlier this year, the Toronto Public Library, the busiest lending system in North America, was hit by a crippling cyberattack that shut down its computer system for four months. For library lovers like me, it was devastating, but it was just one of several high-profile ransomware attacks over the last few years to hit Canadian institutions. Cyberattacks have recently hit LifeLabs, Indigo and SickKids hospital as well.

In an in-depth feature for Maclean’s, Caitlin Walsh Miller set out to understand why ransomware attacks are so common in Canada. The surge, she explains, is fuelled by underworld cybercrime consortiums that help lower-level criminals pull off sophisticated attacks in exchange for a portion of the ransom. Her fascinating piece explores how this diabolical system works.

She also reveals why Canadian law enforcement is especially flat-footed in its response. She says it suffers from “institutional secrecy, slowness and poor communication between the mishmash of bodies responsible for cracking down on cybercrime.” In 2018, the feds released a National Cyber Security Strategy and vowed to create a dedicated RCMP unit called the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre but, as Miller reports, it still hasn’t launched six years later.

—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief

This summer, decorated fighter pilot Jameel Janjua became the first Canadian to fly a commercial spacecraft. He’s part of a push toward a new era of extraterrestrial travel—one that involves sending billionaires into space, yes, but also supporting valuable scientific research. We spoke to him about how he landed the gig, what his first mission was like, and the text he got from his friend (and childhood hero) Chris Hadfield after landing.

Kyler Zeleny grew up on his parents’ farm in Mundare, Alberta, a sleepy, 900-person farming community east of Edmonton. “It was peaceful, but people thought that to be a success, you had to leave,” he recalls. So at 18, he jumped ship. But years later, on a visit home, he noticed that Mundare was slowly slipping into decay—and decided to document it. The resulting book, titled Bury Me in the Back 40, is a sensitive account of Mundare’s past and present. Here’s a look inside.

FROM THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE

Everyone knows that owning a home in one of Canada’s marquee cities is now largely the purview of millionaires. In Toronto, a typical home goes for nearly $1.1 million, while the price of admission in Greater Vancouver is even higher at $1.2 million (and a house in West Vancouver has the vertigo-inducing sticker shock of $2.6 million). The good news is that we managed to find 10 cities on the rise where you can still buy a house for under $700,000. Read our September issue cover story now.

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