Artificial intelligence is reshaping the battlefield of cybersecurity, and the clock is ticking on how fast defenders can adapt.
In offices and security operations centres across Canada, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are learning that every new model released to the public is simultaneously teaching attackers how to move faster, hide better, and strike harder.
Recent studies show how quickly the threat landscape is shifting.
Proofpoint’s 2025 Voice of the CISO report found that 76% of CISOs anticipate a material cyberattack within the next year, an increase from 70% the year before. The 2025 Canadian Cybersecurity Study by CDW Canada highlights similar urgency, noting that while most organizations are working toward Zero Trust, many still struggle to modernize legacy systems that limit progress. And as CanadianSME reports, AI is now driving both sides of the equation, accelerating the sophistication of attacks while also enabling new defensive tools.
Zero-day vulnerabilities are being compromised, and attacks in the wild are starting within 15 minutes of discovery, says Brent Fowles, Director of Cybersecurity and Business Services at Western University, and recently named CanadianCIO CISO of the Year. That reality, he adds, means security demands a Zero Trust mindset that limits lateral movement and assumes compromise from the start.
“Those changes have just amplified the need for more automated tooling, for more automated response, [and] better detections to be in place,” he elaborates.
Threats that once took weeks to develop are now being launched within minutes of a vulnerability being disclosed. Deepfakes and synthetic social engineering have blurred the boundaries of what can be trusted. Even routine activities like document handling, vendor onboarding, or password resets have become potential points of entry for AI-driven deception.
The result is a paradox: technology designed to strengthen security is simultaneously expanding the threat surface.
To keep up, Canadian organizations are moving away from static defence and toward dynamic resilience: investing in Zero Trust architectures, identity protection, and automated detection systems that assume compromise as a starting point.
From defence to anticipation
The same technology helping defenders automate detection is being weaponized to automate deception. Deepfake phishing, AI-generated code injection, and instant reconnaissance scripts are all accelerating the threat cycle.
According to Proofpoint’s report, three in five CISOs worry about customer data loss via public GenAI tools, particularly through public AI platforms. Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) has become a leading investment area, with most organizations moving toward automated detection and continuous authentication.
That mirrors what’s happening in architecture. Zero Trust is now baseline, yet making it real means tackling entrenched legacy systems that still define much of Canada’s digital infrastructure. The CDW Canada study found that while 63.5% of organizations have adopted Extended Detection and Response (XDR), many are still in the early stages of implementing a complete Zero Trust model.
The ecosystem advantage
At Western University, Fowles’ team has leaned on external partners to fill those gaps. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) providers now give them 24-hour coverage that wasn’t possible in-house. “Stuff didn’t have to wait till Monday morning at nine o’clock to take action on it,” he adds.
That collaborative model is quickly becoming the norm across the country. Managed security is a collective defence system, pooling intelligence across sectors and speeding up reaction time.
Marc Joly, President of Infolaser, says that even overlooked devices play a critical role in that architecture. “A printer or a copier is an endpoint on a network and oftentimes it gets overlooked,” says Joly.
“We’re able, with our solutions… to provide customers devices that are one: very secure. Two: software tools that can actually help them manage the security aspects of their fleet.”
He adds that built-in protections at the device level are key to aligning with a Zero Trust framework.
Leadership under pressure
Behind every technical improvement is a leadership challenge.
The proliferation of AI threats is forcing CISOs into new roles as risk translators, bridging boards, business units, and vendors around shared accountability. The focus is shifting from compliance to coordination, where security is shared discipline across the organization.
The CanadianSME article underscores that “in the ongoing cyber arms race, AI is both the threat and the solution.” It highlights how Canadian organizations are adopting AI-driven detection, automation, and Zero Trust strategies to manage that duality. Rather than replacing human judgment, AI is being integrated into layered defences that learn and adapt in real time, helping security teams stay ahead of increasingly intelligent attacks.
For Canada’s cybersecurity community, the challenge now is to turn that mindset into muscle. The country’s future competitiveness depends on how quickly its organizations can operationalize trust, not just talk about it.
The question for leaders is how they’ll build teams, systems, and partnerships that make evolution part of the job.
Final shots
- GenAI has collapsed the response window for cyberattacks from weeks to minutes. Security teams must now build systems that detect, isolate, and act autonomously, because human response alone can’t match machine speed.
- Zero Trust is shifting from principle to practice, becoming the backbone of digital resilience. It’s a culture that redefines access, accountability, and collaboration across every layer of an organization.
- Managed detection partnerships are expanding capacity, improving visibility, and creating shared defence ecosystems. As attacks grow in sophistication, collaboration is proving more effective than isolation.
- Overlooked endpoints like printers and IoT devices are finally being treated as part of the security perimeter. Closing those silent vulnerabilities is strengthening the integrity of enterprise networks.
- The CISO role has evolved from control to coordination. Today’s security leaders succeed not by owning every system, but by aligning people, process, and technology to turn risk management into organizational confidence.
Digital Journal is the national media partner for the CIO Association of Canada.
