Hank “The Hacker” Fordham with Mike Smyth on Global News Radio
Here’s the full transcript of our very own cybersecurity specialist, Hank “The Hacker” Fordham, featured as a guest on Global News’ “The Mike Smyth Show“ last November 3, 2024 – 7AM PST.
Mike: Good morning and welcome back. Hope things are going well in your world. Hope you’re having a great weekend. Rain coming in tonight, so it’s gonna be a decent day today, but then later tonight and into tomorrow, it’s gonna get pretty messy. So if you got some things to do outside, try to get them done today. Now, lots has been made over the last number of months. Maybe even a year or longer about the Chinese government’s influence into our government. And we’re gonna unpack some of that now with Hank Fordham, a.k.a. Hank the Hacker. He’s a Red Team hacker with X10 Technologies, and he joins me now.
Good morning, Hank. How are you?
Hank: Morning. Thank you so much for having me.
Mike: Thanks for being here. How serious is this issue of Chinese influence in our government?
Hank: You know, it’s a really serious issue. And when we look over the past few years here, it’s no surprise that certain organizations, like the Communications Security Establishment in Canada, have actually started to issue warnings about nation-state-sponsored espionage inside the workplace and sensitive workplaces, like critical infrastructure. And now we’re seeing in this newest cyber assessment this year that was released four days ago, with them saying that there’s a continued concern with this, and not just that, but we look at the affairs with Russia. And there’s also concerns with Iran and even cybercrime as a service. So it’s definitely a big issue and one that’s been growing.
Mike: So how does something like this happen? Is it like they have hackers that just are at computers and they’re just better than our hackers? Like, I want to think of our Canadian government as resourceful, and that people here are equally as good at cybersecurity as the people trying to hack us. Is that not the case?
Hank: You know, I wouldn’t say better, but the amount or the initiative that’s going into creating these cyber teams is significant. And when you put it against North America, it’s a very stark contrast. And so if you look up right now, it might be an odd thing to search, but if you look up Chinese cyber army, you will literally see rooms that are just full of uniformed Chinese military that are sitting at computers. And it’s because they’ve kind of acknowledged that one of these next sectors in the military we have Navy, military, army, and air force. So one of these next sectors is cyber. And they’re really investing heavily on developing those teams and sponsoring them or getting them kind of into that workplace, whatever it might be or however that might look, and having them execute tasks like espionage.
Mike: Yeah, so what are they trying to do? I mean, we’re not having our grid disabled or anything. Is this just the stealing of information, or what’s the goal of these hacks?
Hank: So it’s the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. When you look at one side of the scale, you can see things like they’re just trying to get information or trying to collect a foothold or see, like even a couple months ago, there was a big warning about China probing Canadian infrastructure by doing active scanning against the network. And so it can be all the way from just what I guess we might call curiosity or probing to see what’s there, or kind of equivalent to someone walking around the house and seeing if there’s any windows open or doors unlocked, and all the way over to intellectual property theft and espionage, public affairs. It’s very well known that right now Russian and Chinese state-sponsored actors are actually attempting to meddle with Canadian political affairs. So it’s kind of it’s the good, the bad, and the ugly, stealing private design or just information, and then all the way to affecting your power grid or your critical infrastructure if they get that opportunity.
Mike: So we know that this has been happening for a number of years now, and obviously we’ve been trying to stop it, but how do we actually stop it or fight back against it, or can we even?
Hank: So I think a big part of that is definitely going to be Canada investing more in developing that cyber defense strategy around picking the— we have a lot of raw talent around cyber security in Canada. And so we have a very unique opportunity right now, and it’s never been more important than now to start sourcing some of that talent and applying it because it’s a constantly evolving game. So I just think that we have to look at the government trying to invest more in that and then the private sector being included and trying to do things like training and awareness or like what we do at X10 Technologies is pen testing. So we actually go in and try and hack the customer. They come to us, ask us to hack them, and we give them a report that says how to stop the hackers in the future. So there’s many different ways that we can be proactive as Canadians.
Mike: Yeah, I like that idea, proactive, because we’re aware that various bad actors, China, Russia, you mentioned as well, they’re doing this to a lot of countries, not just Canada. Has our response up till now been good enough? You know, you mentioned the government and the government’s role in this. Has the government been taking a strong enough role over these last number of years or could they have been doing more up till now?
Hank: You know, I think because obviously a lot of the stuff that happens there is behind closed doors and we don’t get to hear about a lot of it, I think they have been doing really, really good. And that’s where I come from when I say that Canada has some of the best cyber talent in the world. We just have to apply that. So I think now it’s just a matter of applying that and making sure that we can try and stay at the advantage.
Mike: Okay, and for people listening, Hank, if anyone is thinking to themselves that maybe they’re worried about getting hacked on a personal level, is that something that we should be concerned about as well from foreign actors like this? Would they ever hack individuals?
Hank: You know, I hate to say it, but we’re all a target in our own way. And so whether it be for information or financial gain, we’re all kind of a target in our own way. So it’s definitely important, even if you’re just kind of like your average Joe, to take those extra steps. And I was joking the other day saying, you know, I’m the same guy who uses the free Wi-Fi in the public area, but it’s important that you give yourself the advantage when you’re interacting with the digital world now. So a couple ways that listeners can do that really easily, and it puts you at a huge advantage, is enabling and making sure that two-factor authentication is enabled on your account. It’s inconvenient, but it works. And also use something called a VPN when you’re traveling so that your information doesn’t get stolen.
Mike: Hank Fordham, Hank the hacker. He is a red team hacker with X10 Technologies with some great information about how to keep yourself safe and also what our government is doing. I appreciate you saying that they’re doing a good job because I do believe we have our best people on it. Thank you so much, Hank. Really appreciate your time this morning.
Hank: Thank you so much. It’s my pleasure.
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