Five reasons to make Ontario a hub of fin-tech cybersecurity innovation
In today’s digital world, most of us have internalized the omnipresent threat of cyberattacks to the point of being casual about it. Yet, as Internet bankers or shoppers, consumers of electricity and transportation systems, and even as voters, we are at the mercy of hackers aiming to steal our money or identity, or wreak more sinister, widespread damage to our lives.
The biggest institutional targets of this new-age crime — banks, insurance companies, governments and corporations — are house mother lodes of personal data that can fuel criminal activity and, if breached, put cyber pirates with nefarious political or financial motives in control of major and essential service systems.
The dark reality of cybercrime has triggered a burgeoning and competitive international marketplace for solutions. But how many know that Ontario could be a major player in this fight against cybercrime? Consider these key points:
- Based on venture capital dollars invested in cybersecurity, Canada already ranks fourth in the world with Ontario leading the country as a major global hub of cybersecurity innovation after only the U.S. Israel and the U.K.
- There are already more than 90 Ontario cybersecurity companies. Ontario has a vibrant start-up community and significant clusters of cybersecurity providers and experts throughout the Ottawa-Toronto-Waterloo innovation corridor.
- The Toronto region is home to the head offices of Canada’s five largest banks, three of which rank among the world’s largest 30 banks by market capitalization. Our banks are consistently ranked among the world’s soundest by the World Economic Forum. Toronto also is the Canadian headquarters for the vast majority of foreign banks operating in Canada, including four of the world’s largest banks.
- Toronto is home to two of the top 15 largest life and health insurers by market cap.
- Toronto is home to three of the world’s 60 largest pension funds — Canada Pension Plan (CPPIB) Investment Board, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and OMERS.
These are some of the key findings of a recent independent report by Deloitte, commissioned by the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and Ontario Centres of Excellence. Given Ontario’s existing strengths in both financial services and technology, the province is in a strong position to reach for a new level of global competitiveness in cybersecurity innovation, with a particular focus on the financial services industry.
All that’s required, the Deloitte report argues, is a more coordinated and focused approach to building this capacity within the province.
The good news is that industry and government are listening. There is currently work underway between the public and private sectors to build the kind of collaboration and partnership that is needed. This is essential to growing the cybersecurity capacity in the region, not only to help financial companies better protect their operations and consumer information, but also to ensure that we can leverage this growing tech niche to help drive an innovation based economy and generate even more high-skilled jobs here.
Tom Corr, President and CEO of Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and Janet Ecker, President and CEO of Toronto Financial Services Alliance (TFSA).
