by Canadian Army Today Staff
From the moment soldiers arrive in Latvia on Operation Reassurance, they are subject to an onslaught of cyber threats. Cellphones, laptops, smart watches and other personal electronic devices are the obvious targets, but so too are Army vehicles, weapon systems, sensors, and any other point of entry into the wider Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) digital ecosystem.
The Army has been developing the concept of Cyber Mission Assurance (CMA) for several years, working through the Director Land Equipment Program Support (DLEPS) staff to ensure the platforms it acquires and the supply chains that support them are aware of cyber vulnerabilities and taking steps to close them.
It has also been working to improve the security of its communication and information systems and tactical networks that face a barrage of cyber and electronic warfare attacks the moment they are activated on operations.
The focus is now shifting to the individual soldier. In early November, the Army G6 staff, together with CMA experts from DLEPS and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), hosted a series of information sessions in Petawawa with soldiers from 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in the midst of pre-deployment training for the next rotation of Op Reassurance.
More than cyber awareness, the unclassified briefing was a walk-through attack vectors and cyber effects already present in the region and a stark reminder for soldiers, many about to embark on their first tour, that the weakest link can be an unwitting and inattentive human.
The pilot initiative, which is supported by the Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel) group and the Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command, was intended to make soldiers not only more aware, but more resilient.
“[We’re] trying to tap into the people aspect of problem, the training that we give [soldiers] so that they can react [with] the knowledge and understanding [about] what it is going to look like and how to fight through it,” explained Major Jon Barnett, the Army’s deputy G6.
The topic of cyber mission assurance has been around since “we started introducing more digital concepts into the Army,” he noted. But it has taken on more significance since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the expansion of the Canadian-led Battle Group in Latvia to a full-fledged multinational brigade.
“I think that’s the point at which leadership across the Army started to realize our current approach related to digital force protection and cyber resilience training won’t be effective if ever we go into a conflict like that,” said Barnett. “So, we’ve started to shift our approach. We want to be better prepared to address this before it actually occurs.”
At the direction of the Canadian Army Commander, the G6 team has leaned on the work of DLEPS and DRDC to develop a CMA program to prepare soldiers to operate within a digitally contested environment, and fight through any cyber incidents.
“I use the analogy of the service rifle,” said Barnett. “We’ve engineered the weapon to do what we want it to. We’ve optimized the weapon so that it’s more efficient, and we’ve taught the soldier how to use it, including immediate actions when it breaks down. The last step in the TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) for a rifle stoppage is pull trigger, rounds keep going down range. We need to do the same thing with our digital systems.
“We have engineered and optimized the systems for the purposes of commanders managing the battlespace, but we also need to teach operators that problems will happen, and when problems happen, here’s how you react. Because the ultimate goal is to continue — you cannot become the casualty that then stops the fight.”
The objective is not to develop cyber operators, but rather operators who can keep doing their job when communications and land tactical systems are compromised, one presenter from the CMA program office told participants. As with a jammed weapon, clear it and then continue firing.
Modern military equipment is increasingly digitized and interconnected and relies heavily on software and connected systems, which amplifies vulnerabilities for cyber attacks. To help troops understand how attacks unfold, presenters introduced the concept of a cyber kill chain, a series of steps attackers take to scout weaknesses, deliver malicious code, and take control.
Presenters shared real-world examples from public research and military exercises to show how everyday technology — often cheap and easy to get — can be used to exploit vulnerabilities in equipment.
Much has been made of the 45 million lines of code in an F-35A fighter jet, but a modern smart car now contains over 150 million lines, and all of it is susceptible to attack. Hackers have used a flaw in Sirius XM to gain access to systems in several makes of cars, knowing only the vehicle identification number. The Pentagon has acknowledged successful cyber attacks by unspecified adversaries on XM1296 Stryker Dragoon variants. And during DEFNET, a French military cyber warfare training exercise, a 24.5-ton Griffon armored vehicle was jammed and disabled by a repurposed construction rangefinder.
Soldiers were reminded that “anything connected to equipment is an attack vector,” and even something as simple as using a charging cable bought at a local gas station or bringing a personal device into a maintenance hangar could provide an opening. The DLEPS team noted that hackers have burrowed threats into the code libraries upon which software and hardware is often constructed, so many basic systems could be compromised.
The takeaway? As gear gets smarter and more digital, the risks grow. Understanding the kill chain process is key to staying ahead of cyber threats.
The intent for the pilot initiative is to develop a graduated and standardized CMA training program that can be delivered in phases as soldiers move through their career, receiving occupational specific cyber training and then mission-tailored briefings as they prepare to deploy to a theatre.
“We don’t want this to be an episodic engagement where it’s a reaction to a momentary problem,” said Barnett. “Digital systems are integral to everything that we do within the Canadian Army and in the wider CAF. As much as we’re trying to teach users how to embrace those digital technologies from the start of their careers and throughout their careers, we also need to teach them the consequences and vulnerabilities, and how to work with them.”
After each session, soldiers were asked to participate in focus groups to help fine tune the presentations and development of a CMA training program. Preliminary feedback from troops “was both unexpected and encouraging,” said Dr. Roghieh Rousina-Webb, section head for the Land Cyber Materiel Assurance Program within DLEPS. “There is strong interest in further integration of the CMA concept, with many expressing a desire to see it institutionalized as a mandatory component of future Army training and deployments.”
