Alex Rudolph
On September 26, 2024, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair and Chief of the Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan held a ceremony at Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, the home of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Network Operations Centre (CFNOC), to officially create CAF Cyber Command (CAFCYBERCOM). Although the creation of CAFCYBERCOM was first officially announced in Our North, Strong and Free only five months earlier, in April 2024, CAFCYBERCOM represents the culmination of nearly 25 years of work by the CAF’s cyber operations program. While CAFCYBERCOM was stood up in near record time compared to similar organizations, it took the Department of National Defence (DND) and senior CAF leadership considerable time to recognize the need for such a command in the first place.
Its creation had been a long time coming and desperately needed—it was the early 2010s when the Defence Team’s Cyber Task Force identified many issues related to command and control and the force development of DND/CAF’s digital and cyber capabilities. Canada’s investment in CAF cyber capabilities has only recently begun to parallel similar investments by other Five Eyes and NATO allies, so there remains significant work for CAFCYBERCOM to grow as an organization. As a result, it is important that we understand why it was created, the purpose of a cyber command, what CAFCYBERCOM can do, and the ways the Government of Canada can authorize CAFCYBERCOM to conduct cyber operations.
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