Canada issues list of sensitive cyber and IT technologies it won't allow companies to transfer to foreign threat actors
Canadian companies doing research and making advanced products in areas such as AI and quantum computing, cybersecurity and more now have a list of sensitive technologies Ottawa may forbid them from selling to firms in foreign countries or sharing with foreign research institutes.
Issued today and called the Sensitive Technologies List (STL), it includes emerging technologies or those that have novel uses that Ottawa could block being transferred to foreign threat actors because they could hurt this country's national security or defence.
The list is a warning: If you are working on these technologies Ottawa may forbid them getting into the hands of unwanted nations on security grounds.
Examples include technologies that protect air-gapped or isolated computer networks, cyber defence tools, 5D optical, DNA and single-molecule storage solutions, distributed ledger technology [such as blockchains] adaptive/intelligent radios [that likely would be sold to the military but also possibly to police forces], MIMO radios [perhaps for the military but also for commercial 5G telecom carriers or companies that need to wirelessly transmit sensitive data], designs for Ai chipsets, high performance computing [used in research], cryptography [a field some Canadian universities specialize in] and more.
The list does not preclude the consideration by Ottawa of legacy technology still being used when the government is considering national security risks associated with activities such as foreign direct investment.
The announcement noted that the U.S., the U.K. and Australia have issued their own lists of sensitive sectors or critical and emerging technologies that need to be protected. For example Biden administration issued a Critical and Emerging Technologies List in 2022 and updated it in 2024. I’d love to put a link to that list, but it’s no longer available online. It may be a coincidence but number of other White House websites have been taken offline by the new Trump administration. As a substitute, here’s a link to a U.S. law firm’s 2024 announcement about the list.
The STL is part of a strategy to limit the transfer of important technologies to this countries adversaries. The strategy includes the release last year of a list of dozens of research institutes from Russia, China and Iran that the federal government won't approve applications for funding joint research between these organizations and Canadian universities or companies.
“I think it [the STL] going to have a significant impact on cybersecurity firms in Canada," said David Shipley, head of New Brunswick's Beauceron Security and a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's cyber council. "The STL specifically notes certain types of cybersecurity solutions, but it also covers AI broadly including the use of computer vision, ML and LLM-based approaches.
“I don’t think this is going to fundamentally make Canadian firms less attractive and I think there are far bigger issues related to exit strategies for Canadian firms including the overall lukewarm IPO market to go public. Good Canadian tech will still be globally attractive.”
He also urged federal and provincial governments here to buy more Canadian cybersecurity products and services as part of maintaining a cyber industrial base in Canada and for national security purposes.
Ottawa has already released a Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern. The list released today give organizations more detail so they know what product sales or research partnerships might be blocked.
Experts have been warning for years that foreign countries — particularly China — are eager to capitalize on technologies it can access from other nations. In 2022 Ottawa announced it intended to prohibit Canadian telecommunications service providers from deploying Huawei and ZTE products and services in their 5G networks.
The STL has been a long time coming. In 2023 a deputy minister of Public Safety testifying before a Parliamentary committee on China’s use of research done by federally-funded universities said the government was working on the list.
That committee issued its report in May, 2024.