Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report
The Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report is a compilation of summaries of publicly available emergency management information concerning critical infrastructure.
A summary of feedback results is now available.
News | Cyber tracking | Relevant links | Note to readers
DIR10-122 - June 25, 2010
News
Tornadoes confirmed in Midland, Ontario
To update on Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report DIR10-121 , on June 24, canada.com reported that Environment Canada confirmed that two tornadoes touched down in the Midland area. An F2 tornado formed at 18:30 EDT on June 23, creating wind speeds of 180–240 km/h and leaving a 25-kilometre trail of damage from the shores of Georgian Bay, in an area known as Rowntree Beach, to the west of Waubaushene. A second tornado spawned from the same system at about 19:00 EDT, creating wind speeds of 120–170 km/h, in the small community of Maple Valley, about 10 kilometres west of Washago. At least 50 homes have been destroyed, with insurance experts estimating damage to be as high as $15 million. As of June 24, about 50 homes were still without power.
Source article – canada.com, June 24, 2010
Earthquake felt in Ontario and Quebec: Update
To update on Public Safety Canada Daily Infrastructure Report DIR10-121, on June 24, media reported that authorities have been inspecting buildings, roads and infrastructure. In Ottawa, 19 schools were reopened after engineers inspected and verified they were safe. All schools in Ottawa Catholic School Board were also open. In Gatineau, the City was inspecting municipal buildings; schools were already closed for the summer. At Northfield, near Gracefield, Highway 105 is closed because an anomaly was detected in the structure of a bridge; however, a detour is in place. The stretch of Highway 307 near Bowman remains closed as engineers carry out emergency work. Route 307 in Saint-Pierre de Wakefield reopened to traffic. In Gracefield, the state of emergency was lifted.
Source article – Radio-Canada, June 24, 2010
Source article – CBC, June 24, 2010
Government of Canada makes major investment to international climate change
On June 23, Environment Canada announced that the Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment under the Copenhagen Accord to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries with their efforts to fight climate change. As promised as part of the Copenhagen Accord, Canada will invest $400 million for international climate change efforts this fiscal year. This represents the 2010 portion of Canada's fair share of the fast-start financing promised by developed countries under the Copenhagen Accord.
Source article – Environment Canada, June 23, 2010
Government of Canada to regulate emissions from electricity sector
On June 23, Environment Canada announced that the Government of Canada is taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the electricity sector by moving forward with regulations on coal-fired electricity generation, which account for 13% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed regulations will apply a stringent performance standard to new coal-fired electricity generation units and those coal-fired units that have reached the end of their economic life. This policy, coupled with the commitments of the provinces, and companies who have committed to coal closures, will reduce emissions by about 15 megatonnes. This is equivalent to taking about 3.2 million vehicles off our roads. The Government of Canada is continuing to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a sector-by-sector basis. Draft regulations to reduce GHGs from the electricity sector are expected to be published in Canada Gazette early in 2011 and final regulations published later that year. This will allow sufficient time for consultations and outreach with industry and other stakeholders. Regulations are scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2015. As inscribed in the Copenhagen Accord, Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.
Source article - Environment Canada, June 23, 2010
World Cup continues to drive spam
On June 23, v3.co.uk reported that according to Symantec, the World Cup is continuing to play a major role in global spam loads. According to Symantec, the World Cup is not only popular for scams, but is also useful for tempting users to open other types of spam as well. The company said that subject lines relating to the World Cup were amongst the most popular for pharmaceutical spam messages. Additionally, World Cup text was being used by spammers to avoid spam filters. The scammers do this by placing lines of text related to the tournaments within the body of a message to confuse signature-based filters that check for message content.
Source article – v3.co.uk, June 23, 2010
White House plans strategy for better cyber authentication
On June 22, Federal Computer Week reported that the U.S. President’s administration plans to release on June 25 a draft of a new national strategy for improving capabilities to identify and authenticate people, organizations and infrastructure in cyberspace. The White House’s cyber coordinator indicated that the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace document lays out goals and objectives to allow for laws, policies and programs to improve the trustworthiness of digital identities in cyberspace. The strategy builds on work the government has done in identity management under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.
Source article – Federal Computer Week, June 22, 2010
Cyber tracking
CCIRC security publications
Over the course of the past 24 hours, CCIRC has not released any security publications.
CCIRC provides a list of recent and archived security publications.
Threat and vulnerability monitoring
CCIRC is currently tracking the following computer-based threats and vulnerabilities for relevant impact on Canadian critical infrastructure. Personnel responsible for information, systems and network security should continue to monitor and apply appropriate security precautions.
Relevant links
Below are links to sites related to Canada’s critical infrastructure.
- Food Recalls and Allergy Alerts
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
- Health Advisories, Warnings and Recalls
Health Canada
- Disease Outbreak News
World Health Organization
- Travel Health Notices
Public Health Agency of Canada
- Transportation - Safety
Transport Canada
- Travel Reports and Warnings
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
- Weather warnings for Canada
Environment Canada
- Earthquakes
Earthquakes Canada
- Hurricanes
Canadian Hurricane Centre
- Hurricanes
U.S. National Hurricane Center
- News Releases
Infrastructure Canada
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Note to readers
Public Safety Canada collects information related to cyber and physical threats to, and events concerning, Canadian critical infrastructure. This allows Public Safety Canada to monitor and analyze threats and to issue alerts, advisories and other information products.
Links to sites not under the control of the Government of Canada are provided solely for the convenience of users. The Government of Canada is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content. The Government of Canada does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.
Public Safety Canada respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that information products are available in both English and French. However, users should be aware that some links direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and that these sources are only available in the language in which they are written.