Securing Canada’s Digital Future Starts with Talent

By Hyelim Juliana Kim, National Sector Lead, Cybersecurity, Mitacs, and Dr. Stephen Lucas, CEO, Mitacs

Canada has established itself as a proactive player in the global cybersecurity landscape. In Budget 2024, the federal government allocated $917.4 million over five years to strengthen intelligence and cyber operations, underscoring a sustained focus on cybersecurity as a national priority. This investment aligns with Canada’s strong international standing in this sector and it’s growing role as a leader in developing secure solutions to evolving threats.

But despite keeping pace with many larger countries including those with greater defense budgets and larger tech sectors like the United States, Canada still faces significant cybersecurity challenges, showing that even global leadership doesn’t ensure immunity from ongoing and emerging threats. According to the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), an estimated 25,000 cybersecurity positions in Canada remain unfilled, accounting for roughly one in six roles, a talent gap that leaves critical systems vulnerable. At the same time, global cybercrime damages are projected to exceed $10 trillion annually this year — a substantial leap from $3 trillion in 2015 — reflecting the escalating cost of data breaches, stolen funds, intellectual property theft, operational disruption, and post-attack recovery. Additionally, high-profile breaches targeting hospitals, municipalities, the defense sector, national security, and critical infrastructures like energy, transportation, and telecommunications in Canada, alongside the increasing prevalence of disinformation tactics used in information warfare, demonstrate how cybersecurity has evolved from a private-sector concern to a broader threat affecting essential public services, government operations, and even democratic institutions.

While Canada’s cyber resilience depends on how we respond to a range of challenges — from geopolitical tensions and supply chain risks to the rapid adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing — the pace of change is outstripping our ability to train the people needed to secure it. Among the 90% of organizations reporting cybersecurity skills shortages, 64% say it’s their most serious staffing issue. The talent gap clearly needs urgent attention at all levels, from technical teams to executive leadership. The good news is we can close it with comprehensive strategies. including targeted training, stronger industry-academic collaboration, and support for reskilling workers from adjacent fields.

Future-Proofing Our Digital Defences

The need to attract and train new cybersecurity talent isn’t just about long-term growth — it’s critical to reducing the pressure on professionals working in an overstretched, high-turnover field where mental health concerns are well documented. According to research published by CyberArk, more than half of cybersecurity professionals report experiencing burnout. The result is a higher likelihood of human error, which plays a role in 74% of data breaches. And these challenges come with a high price tag, with organizations experiencing cybersecurity staffing shortages spending an average of $1.76 million more on breach-related costs.

The pressure is only mounting: the global cybersecurity workforce gap has surged to 4 million, according to ISC², a signal that existing talent strategies may not be keeping pace with the scale of demand. While Canada’s cybersecurity sector shows promising growth — with the job market projected to expand by 8.2% annually through 2029 (nearly three times faster than other sectors), our digital economy expected to employ 2.26 million workers by 2025 (accounting for about 11% of all employment), and the country leading the G7 in jobs recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic, those gains will be tested by the scope and speed of emerging threats and technologies. Quantum computing is expected to break many of today’s encryption standards as early as the 2030s, prompting the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security to urge organizations to begin planning for post-quantum cryptography. At the same time, the Centre highlights that AI systems introduce unique risks and recommends integrating security measures throughout their entire lifecycle. Canada’s cybersecurity future depends not just on developing new technologies, but also on building a workforce capable of securing the ones it creates.

But solving the talent gap goes beyond numbers. It means expanding our understanding of who and what counts as valuable cybersecurity talent. While technical expertise, including specialized training in AI, remains essential, today’s threats demand input from professionals in law, policy, ethics, psychology, and other disciplines. Disinformation campaigns, deepfakes, behavioural manipulation, and regulatory complexity are now part of the threat environment, and they can’t be tackled by technologists alone. Concurrent with this challenge, we must confront long-standing barriers to inclusion. Women make up just a fifth of the global cybersecurity workforce, with similarly low representation across other equity-deserving groups. Expanding and diversifying the talent pipeline is more than an equity issue — it’s a strategic imperative. Diverse, interdisciplinary teams are more likely to spot hidden risks, question assumptions, and design solutions that account for the social, technical, and regulatory realities of cybersecurity. Canada is well positioned to lead on this front, and some organizations are already showing what’s possible. 

Strengthening Canada’s Cyber Workforce from Within

Mitacs is one of those organizations — demonstrating how we can scale talent development across disciplines, regions, and sectors. Since 2018, Mitacs has supported over 99,000 research internships across 11,000+ partner organizations — 86% of which have been small businesses — and helped launch more than 35,000 innovation projects. Within its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent pool, 40% of Mitacs interns identify as women, a figure that compares favourably to the 25% representation of women in Canada’s overall STEM workforce.

Mitacs-supported research is also helping address high-priority cybersecurity challenges, including a partnership with Hydro-Québec and the University of Toronto to develop quantum-resilient encryption and AI-driven threat detection for Canada’s smart grid, and another with RUNWITHIT Synthetics and the University of Alberta focused on modelling infrastructure resilience in the face of cyberattacks and natural disasters.

Beyond these individual projects, companies supported by Mitacs experience measurable gains: an 11% boost in productivity, a 16% rise in sales, and an 18% increase in employment over three years according to a Statistics Canada study. As Canada looks to close its cybersecurity talent gap, Mitacs offers a proven model for scaling a more diverse, future-ready workforce — one built on homegrown talent and bolstered by international partnerships to meet the demands of today and prepare for whatever comes next.

Canada has taken important steps to strengthen its digital infrastructure and cybersecurity capabilities, but we need to match that ambition when it comes to talent. Organizations like Mitacs demonstrate how collaboration across academia, industry, and government can accelerate workforce development at scale. Now we need to build on that foundation. Closing the cybersecurity talent gap will require coordinated national action — from expanding reskilling programs and interdisciplinary training, to removing barriers for underrepresented groups and creating faster, clearer pathways into cyber careers. As technologies like AI and quantum computing advance, Canada has the tools and institutions to shape the way forward, but doing so means treating talent development as critical infrastructure. Because, after all, cybersecurity is an essential part of national security.

Mitacs’s programs receive funding from multiple partners across Canada. We thank the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon for supporting us to empower Canadian innovation. 

Do you have a business challenge that could benefit from a research solution? If so, contact Mitacs today to discuss partnership opportunities: [email protected].