Canada installs cybersecurity sensors on Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut government networks

The Communications Security Establishment operates digital sensors on territorial government IT systems in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, Cbc reported. The Northwest Territories received the first sensors in late 2022, with Yukon and Nunavut following in 2024.

Bridget Walshe of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security said the sensors consist of software installed on laptops, servers and in the cloud.

The tools check whether systems are up to date, identify vulnerabilities and scan for suspicious activity, with data sent to analysts in Ottawa. CSE shared 150 prevention and detection reports with territorial and provincial governments, Walshe said. Those reports represent five per cent of total sensor deployments.

Past incidents include a 2019 ransomware attack that crippled Nunavut government operations and a 2022 intrusion that cost the Northwest Territories more than $700,000 to contain. The City of Yellowknife took services offline for a week in 2025 after a ransomware threat, and a cloud software breach affected multiple Northwest Territories school boards last year.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced more than $40 billion in northern investment in March, focused on military infrastructure and transportation routes.

Walshe said growing federal spending has increased interest from threat actors seeking to access and manipulate networks. Intelligence Commissioner Simon Noël highlighted improper sharing of information with international partners between 2020 and 2023 in which data on Canadians had not been removed.