Jennifer Quaid
Executive Director, Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange
A new collaboration between a leading cyber threat-sharing organization and a cross-sector coalition fighting scams and fraud is strengthening Canada’s defences.
Cybersecurity leaders understand a critical truth: an organization can only defend against the threats it can see. That’s why the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) has welcomed the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition (CASC) into its network of trusted defenders.
For over a decade, CCTX has given Canadian organizations a place to exchange threat intelligence they cannot safely share anywhere else. In this way, one member’s incident becomes every member’s early warning.
Adding CASC’s anti-fraud network only enhances the impact of CCTX’s cyber mission. Cybersecurity protects the systems Canadians rely on. Anti-scam initiatives protect the people who use those systems. It’s a natural fit.
Taking a broader view
“Cybercrime and fraud are now part of the same threat ecosystem, and Canada’s response must reflect that reality,” says Abhay Raman, Senior Vice-President and Chief Security Officer at Sun Life Financial and Chair of the CCTX Board of Directors. “Bringing CASC into CCTX gives our members a broader view of the threat, new operational partners, and greater opportunities to turn shared intelligence into collective action.”
Cybercrime and fraud are now part of the same threat ecosystem, and Canada’s response must reflect that reality.
Over the past several years, the challenges posed by cybercrime and fraud have converged. Phishing, credential theft, account takeover, malicious domains, and brand impersonation form the infrastructure of the modern scam. A compromised email account, for instance, may be the opening move in an investment fraud. Cyberattacks and scams are increasingly built from the same technical foundations. Our defences must be, too.
Responding to threats faster
That imperative has become even more urgent in the age of AI, which has dramatically accelerated malicious activity. Automation enables fraud operations to generate phishing messages, cloned voices, and fake websites at unprecedented speed and scale.
That compression changes the calculus for information-sharing. An indicator that sits unshared for even a few days can become a window through which an AI-driven operation scales an attack across sectors.
Under the new arrangement, CASC brings to CCTX new intelligence, new operational partners, and a more complete view of the criminal ecosystem. In return, CASC gains the infrastructure, technical rigour, and trusted sharing discipline that CCTX has spent years building, along with direct access to a community of cybersecurity practitioners who often see these threats first.
Connecting cyber and fraud intelligence
“Collaboration is critical in safeguarding organizations and individuals’ information,” says Iain Kennedy, Chief Information and Cyber Security Officer at Rogers Communications. “Rogers is a member of both the CCTX and CASC, and bringing them together will help us collectively build stronger defences, support more coordinated action, and strengthen Canada’s digital resilience.”
Neither organization was built to do what the other does. Together, however, they’re positioned to see more of the same threat. Fraud intelligence adds real-world context to cyber indicators that might otherwise look like noise. Cyber threat intelligence helps anti-scam investigators identify malicious campaigns before they fully unfold. Bringing these intelligence streams together allows members to move beyond isolated incidents and identify connected criminal activity across sectors.
Bringing CASC into CCTX gives our members a broader view of the threat, new operational partners, and greater opportunities to turn shared intelligence into collective action.
“Scams do not begin and end within one sector,” says Anthony Ostler, President and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association and Chair of the CASC Steering Committee. “They move across digital platforms, telecommunications networks, and financial systems, exploiting the gaps between them. CASC strengthens the cross-sector collaboration needed to close those gaps, disrupt criminal activity, and better protect Canadians.”
Closing the gaps between sectors
Of course, no single defender can stop a swath of criminal networks. But this partnership begins to correct a fundamental mismatch. Cybercriminals and fraudsters already move seamlessly across the lines that separate cybersecurity from fraud prevention, banks from telecoms, and the private sector from law enforcement. They’ve never respected those boundaries. Too often, our defences have.
That mismatch has a cost, and Canadians pay the price every day through stolen credentials, drained accounts, and scams that could have been stopped if the right people had been looking at the same picture.
The integration of CASC into CCTX will demonstrate that Canada is strongest when its cyber and anti-fraud communities work together for the benefit of Canadians and Canadian organizations. A shared view of the threat landscape, combined with coordinated action across sectors, will help us stay ahead of adversaries, strengthen national resilience, and better protect Canadians, businesses, and institutions from evolving cyber and fraud threats.
To learn more about CCTX and the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition’s work to strengthen Canada’s cyber resilience, visit cctx.ca.
