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We just joined a brand new IoT accelerator to help solve a massive, industry-wide security problem

The CIRA team was recently chosen to participate in a brand new IoT accelerator based in Ottawa.
By Jacques Latour
Chief technology officer

The CIRA team was recently chosen to participate in a brand new IoT accelerator based in Ottawa.

A couple of weeks ago the CIRA team was chosen to participate in a brand new Internet of Things (IoT) accelerator hosted by the Ottawa-based startup incubator L-SPARK. Over the coming year, CIRA Labs will be working with a cross-disciplinary team of experts, technologists, and advisors to develop a cutting edge IoT Registry through L-SPARK’s Secure IoT Accelerator program.

With the widespread deployment of 5G networks on the horizon, there will soon be an explosion of internet-connected devices in households and businesses around the world. Everything from doorbells to fridges to thermostats and beyond will soon begin to ship with a SIM card and a high-quality internet connection, enabled by state-of-the-art 5G networks.

Of course, as more and more commonplace devices become internet-connected, the cybersecurity risks around them grow. With this in mind, CIRA is working on innovative strategies to mitigate the risks these devices pose to users as well as the public internet.

Right now the entire industry is trying to solve a massive problem:

How are internet service providers, IoT manufacturers, cloud service providers, and end users going to keep track of every single device and ensure security across the entire network. 

This is the billion dollar question that CIRA’s L-SPARK project – and the entire IoT industry – is racing to answer.

Now, you may have noticed that, unlike the other participants, CIRA is not actually a startup. We’re a mission-driven not-for-profit working hard to manage the .CA domain and build a better online Canada. Our inclusion in this program shows how far we’ve come in being able to position ourselves as a nimble, innovative tech organization at the forefront of the cybersecurity and internet infrastructure industries.

The good news is that we think we’ve found a solution that will work; the bad news is that we can’t say too much about it publicly right now – but we’ll tell you everything we can as we advance through the Secure IoT Accelerator program.

In the meantime, we are super excited to be working with some of the brightest minds in the industry to develop a world-class security framework for IoT devices, and can’t wait to share it with the world. Stay tuned for updates!

Learn more about what CIRA Labs is up to.

About the author
Jacques Latour

As an expert in developing innovative, leading-edge IT solutions, Jacques has established CIRA as a global leader among ccTLD registries. He has 25+ years of experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors and as CIRA’s CTO,is currently leading CIRA Labs, CIRA’s innovation hub and providing leadership and direction for the management and security of the .CA registry and its underlying DNS.

A visionary in the Internet community, Jacques led the development of CIRA’s Internet Performance Test, is an outspoken advocate for the adoption of IPv6 and represents the .CA registry internationally as a member of a variety of working groups and advisory groups. He is committed to the development of a new Canadian Internet architecture. He has served as the catalyst for the creation of a national Canadian IXP association, CA-IX, and is a member of the Manitoba Internet Exchange’s (MBIX) and the DNS-OARC Board of Directors.  Jacques is also a member of ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC).

Jacques holds an Electronics Engineering Technologist diploma from Algonquin College, is ITIL v3 Foundation certified and is a certified Agile ScrumMaster.

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