Until October 15, 2016, Public Safety Canada will lead the consultation by engaging stakeholders and Canadians on the trends and challenges of cybersecurity, as well as on new initiatives under consideration which will strive to build Canada’s resilience, capability and innovation in cybersecurity.

Canada has more computers per capita than any other country (129 devices per 100 people), and Canadians are the heaviest internet users in the world spending more than 40 hours online per person, per month.

To date, approximately 70 percent of Canadian businesses have been victim of cyber-attacks.

Technology lawyers hope that the public consultation on cybersecurity will result in a set of national standards for digital safety in Canada. Speaking to Legal Feeds, the blog for Canadian Lawyer and Law Times, technology lawyer Lisa Abe-Oldenburg says that, currently, it’s difficult to advise clients who ask about the level of security standards they should be following to protect their systems.

“There’s really not a lot of legislation we can point to to give them any kind of guidance and comfort,” she said. “It often becomes a negotiation between the customer and the supplier.”