Over the course of the transformation, Alberta’s information security team implemented technology and training at a pace to align with the race to remote, always keeping security top-of-mind. “In cybersecurity, the future could be tomorrow, it could be a minute from now. Things impact you very quickly,” says Dinel. “When we started to move services into the cloud, we were able to handle the extra traffic safely. We’ve been able to move rapidly, and that helped tremendously.”  

The Government of Alberta, a $50 billion organization, is tasked with looking after the administrative needs of over 4 million citizens. Within an IT department about a thousand people strong, they have a 45-person dedicated cybersecurity team. As they modernize platforms and policy, Dinel’s team has intently evolved Alberta’s digital security strategy. They’ve tactically shifted from a reactive posture—managing occurring or detected incidents—to a more proactive one, identifying threats ahead of time.   

One key proactive measure they’ve implemented from the beginning of their move into the cloud is multifactor authentication. Another is staying focused on the basics of good cyber hygiene: implementing security patches, monitoring services, and ensuring that the latest versions of software are always up and running.  

However, with more services digitized by Alberta, the more opportunity there is for information theft, identify theft, or fraud. They are committed to detecting cyberattacks early and dealing with them effectively, especially knowing the damage that cyberattacks can cause. Since using Microsoft Security tools, they have stopped at least 1,000 attacks each month.

With the aggressive moves they’ve made, Alberta’s standard practice is now digital by default, with 95% of new solutions implemented securely in the cloud. Up next, Alberta is looking closely at their security posture as they prepare to expand their public-facing side. “We are implementing Microsoft security tools that have been well accepted and that integrate very well within our environment. We have moved way faster than we would normally have,” says Dinel, adding, “I think we probably would have been hit with some successful attacks without Microsoft.” 

Embrace proactive security with Zero Trust. Evaluate your security posture today: 

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As Microsoft Canada’s National Security Officer, I have conversations every day with our Canadian customers about what we are doing as an organization to protect their vital data. I often tell them that “Microsoft is the largest security company that you’ve never heard of.” What do I mean by that, you might ask?

I mean that everything Microsoft engineers and operates is rooted in our deep focus on security. We believe that security needs to be built into everything and not bolt on after the fact. Public cloud is the future of effective security and can enable digital transformation with confidence and safety. Microsoft delivers a comprehensive, agile platform to better protect endpoints, move faster to detect threats, and respond to security incidents quickly across even the largest of organizations. We invest more than $1 billion every year in security capabilities for our solutions. That’s how we continue to keep pace – and outpace – the cybercrime ecosystem and safeguard our customers’ businesses, with a focus on preventing identity compromise, securing apps and data, expanding device controls, and safeguarding infrastructure.

From large financial institutions with a high need for security (like TD Bank) to smaller Canadian businesses with a need to scale and modernize (like Mabel’s Labels), our trusted solutions are helping drive secure digital transformation.

And we’ve built all of our security solutions to meet the needs of the modern workforce and the modern customer. Advanced biometrics in Windows Hello provides employees with a more personal and secure way to unlock Windows 10 devices using facial recognition or fingerprints. We’ve built our Enterprise Mobility Suite to ensure companies can offer employees BYOD programs while still maintaining a secure network. Microsoft Cloud App Security allows companies to discover all the cloud apps in use on their networks, and decide which ones to allow or block.

Now more than ever, Canadian business leaders are encouraged to evaluate Microsoft public cloud as a foundational element of their security strategy. And we’re here to help. Want to learn more? Check out our short eBook, Trends in Cybersecurity.

Visit www.microsoft.ca/securetransformation to learn more.

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