Cyber Fire: How the Canadian Armed Forces is approaching cyber warfare [Video]

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) needs to be ready to “fight for its freedom of action in cyberspace” amidst a “transformational” change in information technology, a newly released internal document reads.

The 2016 document laid out the Canadian Armed Forces views in approaching “cyber warfare” – a field of operations that had been facing increasing scrutiny at the time, amid high-profile global hacks and interference allegations, including operations conducted solely through computer systems as well as cyber tools deployed to assist conventional military operations.

Its release comes as Global News has learned of an independent review of the Communications Security Establishment’s (CSE) use of “active” cyber measures is expected in the coming weeks. Alongside the military, CSE is the only government agency explicitly authorized to conduct what are often referred to as cyber attacks.

The 2016 document warned that Canada’s military had a “relatively poor” understanding of the long-term impacts …