Security experts say an IT outage that caused Canadian border officers to miss potential security lookouts on people entering the country highlights a systemic issue that needs to be fixed.
The system went down after an unforeseen technical problem during routine maintenance on Sept. 28, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Border officers say they missed potential security lookouts during the outage, which also caused delays of up to 38 hours for some cross-border truck drivers.
Those security lookouts, according to the CBSA, warn officers about people or shipments that might pose a threat to Canadians.
Kelly Sundberg, a former CBSA officer who now researchers border security as a professor at Mount Royal University, said he believes that, “Without question, people came into our border during those periods that should not have come in.”
He said those lookouts can warn officers about potential threats to national security that require mandatory secondary examination.
Without access to those lookouts, Sundberg said, it would not be possible for an officer to know about any timely reports connected to an individual crossing into Canada.
“This is just another example of a big, big red flag that we do not have the necessary resources and people in place to ensure the integrity of our border,” said Sundberg.
A spokesperson for the CBSA told CBC News that it invoked a contingency plan when the outage occurred to complete screenings and verifications, and that it was not a cyberattack.
“Safety and security standards were upheld throughout the systems outages,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC News.
“With border services officers manually verifying travellers’ identities, receiving their declarations, and conducting any additional screening warranted by each traveller’s individual circumstances,” the statement continued.
They did not respond to a direct question asking if border officers had access to security lookouts during the outage.
CBSA outage left officers without access to security flags, union says
Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union representing border officers, said not being able to access security lookouts was a big concern for his members.
“We’d get that information once the system is back up and running, which could be well after the truck has already been allowed in,” said Weber.
Weber said officers were called in on overtime to deal with the backlog created by the outage.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) said some truck drivers entering the country at the New York-Ontario land crossings were delayed up to 38 hours.
“There’s a loss of productivity to the supply chain. Depending on the delays, there could be factory shutdowns,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski.
He said trucking companies have asked for the government to upgrade these IT systems for years as a way of securing the supply chain.
“Investing in the IT that facilitates Canada-U.S. trade by truck is a nation-building exercise. It’s just not as sexy as some of the others,” he told CBC News.
The CBSA has more than a dozen ongoing projects aimed at improving IT systems that are expected to be completed within five years with a budget of nearly $1-billion.
It’s also committed to filing a report into the outage to the minister of public safety within 30 days of the incident.
But border security expert Christian Leuprecht says the outage has highlighted systemic issues that won’t be something the government can address with money alone.
“The fact that we’re working with an antiquated system and the length of the outage is an indication of yet again…we’re not fit for purpose for the 21st century in terms of our national security posture,” said Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College and Queen’s University.
He said that the CBSA has rebuilt back-end systems in recent years but believes the government needs to do more to switch into a data-driven organization.
He said updating any one system can be complicated because it connects to others and requires consistent maintenance.
“We would need to rethink how the federal government does IT because unless and until the government is prepared to pay for proper 21st century IT infrastructure and the IT expertise in terms of human resources that comes with that infrastructure, we’re simply not going to get a fit-for-purpose solution,” said Leuprecht.
