Background

Cybercrime in Canada

Cybercrime costs the Canadian economy between $3 billion and $5 billion a year.¹. But, the impacts go beyond economics. Millions suffer the emotional impacts of cybercrime, including feelings of shame, vulnerability, fear, and confusion.

Cybercrime is vastly underreported. In 2018, only 32,968 cases were filed and most are not solved.² In addition, only 10% of Canadian businesses impacted by cybercrime events reported the crime to police. Even fewer businesses reported any measures to protect themselves, their customers, and their partners.³

The public is concerned but unprotected. They need support to deal with the impact and reduce their chances of falling victim in the first place. ⁴

Our partnership with RCMP/NC3

In 2018, the Canadian Government set aside budget to create the RCMP’s National Cybercrime Coordination Unit.⁵

The role of the unit is to:

• Coordinate cybercrime investigations in Canada and work with partners internationally to combat a wide range of cybercrime incidents
• Provide investigative advice and guidance to Canadian police
• Produce cybercrime intelligence for Canadian police
• Create a single point of contact for individuals and businesses to report cybercrime online

In October 2018, the Canadian Digital Service (CDS) embarked on a partnership with the RCMP/NC3 focused on delivering a public reporting tool for victims of cybercrime and fraud. This tool, the National Cybercrime and Fraud Reporting System (NCFRS), will eventually feed reports into the National Cybercrime System (NCS) for triage, analysis, and dissemination to respective police of jurisdiction.

CDS’s role in this partnership goes beyond service delivery. CDS is also working with the RCMP to build capacity and put in place modern processes and technology, including: agile software development techniques, product management, design research, iteration, working in the open, and service design.

Our primary goal is that our partner departments, like RCMP, continue to work with these tools and methods once the partnership concludes - and keep iterating on digital products going forward.