Canada's 2025 Cyber Threat Report: What BC Small Businesses Need to Know

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security just released its National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026, and if you run a business in Surrey, Langley, or anywhere in the Lower Mainland, you need to pay attention.

The report is Canada’s official intelligence assessment of the threats targeting Canadian organizations right now. The findings are sobering, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that often assume they’re “too small to target.”

Here’s what the report says, what it means for your business, and what you can actually do about it.

The Headline: Ransomware Is Canada’s #1 Cyber Threat

According to the Cyber Centre, ransomware is the top cybercrime threat facing Canada’s critical infrastructure, and it’s not slowing down.

The numbers are stark:

Global ransomware incidents rose 74% in 2023 compared to 2022
Global ransom payments hit a record $1 billion USD
The average ransom paid in Canada in 2023 was $1.13 million CAD, up almost 150% in two years
Ransomware incidents in Canada have grown an average of 26% year-over-year since 2021

What’s worse: these numbers are almost certainly underreported. Many businesses don’t report ransomware attacks due to reputational concerns or because they quietly pay the ransom and move on.

Why Small Businesses Are Prime Targets

If you’re thinking “we’re just a 20-person company in Langley, why would hackers care about us?” that’s exactly the mindset attackers exploit.

Small and medium businesses are attractive targets because:

Weaker defenses: Unlike large enterprises, SMBs often lack dedicated security staff, advanced monitoring, and robust backup systems.
Faster payouts: A $50,000 ransom is devastating to a small business but small enough that many will pay rather than lose weeks of downtime.
Supply chain access: Attackers know that compromising a small vendor can give them access to larger clients.

The Cyber Centre specifically notes that ransomware actors are exploiting digital supply chains, targeting software vendors and service providers to cascade attacks across multiple victims. If your business uses third-party software or cloud services (and you do), you’re part of someone’s supply chain.

AI Is Making Attacks More Dangerous

The report highlights a trend that should concern every business owner: artificial intelligence is supercharging cyber attacks.

The Cyber Centre states that AI technologies are “almost certainly lowering the barriers to entry and enhancing the quality, scale, and precision of malicious cyber threat activity.”

Here’s how attackers are using AI right now:

1. Better Phishing Emails

Remember when phishing emails were easy to spot because of broken English and obvious formatting errors? Those days are over.

Attackers are using large language models (like ChatGPT) to craft personalized, grammatically perfect phishing emails at scale. These emails mimic human writing styles, reference real business contexts, and are increasingly difficult for employees to identify.

2. Deepfake Voice and Video

The report warns that cybercriminals are creating realistic audio and visual content impersonating trusted individuals: your CEO, your accountant, your IT provider.

We’ve already seen cases in Canada where employees received phone calls that sounded exactly like their boss, instructing them to wire money or share credentials. The voice was AI-generated.

3. Automated Attack Scaling

Skilled attackers are using AI to automate parts of the attack chain, allowing them to target more organizations simultaneously. What used to require a team of hackers can now be partially automated.

The “Cybercrime-as-a-Service” Economy

One of the most important findings in the report: you don’t need to be a skilled hacker to launch a cyber attack anymore.

The Cyber Centre describes a thriving Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) ecosystem where:

Specialized criminals sell ready-to-use ransomware kits
Online marketplaces trade stolen credentials and leaked data
Attack infrastructure can be rented by the hour
“Customer support” is available for would-be attackers

This has dramatically lowered the barrier to entry for cybercrime. A teenager with a credit card can now rent sophisticated attack tools that would have required nation-state resources a decade ago.

For business owners, this means the threat isn’t just from elite hacking groups. It’s from a distributed network of opportunistic criminals looking for easy targets. And “easy” usually means “unprotected.”

What This Means for BC Businesses

Let’s translate this into practical terms for a business in Surrey, Langley, or the Lower Mainland.

You’re Not Too Small

The CaaS model means attackers can target thousands of businesses simultaneously with automated tools. They’re not picking you specifically. They’re scanning for vulnerabilities and exploiting whatever they find. Size doesn’t protect you; security posture does.

Your Employees Are the Front Line

With AI-enhanced phishing and deepfakes, technical controls alone aren’t enough. Your team needs to understand the threats and know how to respond. Regular security awareness training is no longer optional. It’s essential.

Backups Aren’t Enough

Many businesses assume that if they have backups, they’re protected from ransomware. But modern ransomware attackers have adapted:

They often lurk in systems for weeks before encrypting, ensuring backups are also infected
They steal data before encrypting, threatening to publish it unless you pay (double extortion)
They target backup systems specifically

You need immutable, tested, offsite backups and a recovery plan you’ve actually practiced.

Your Vendors Are a Risk Vector

The MOVEit attack mentioned in the report impacted 2,750 businesses and 94 million individuals through a single software vulnerability. If you’re using cloud services, SaaS applications, or third-party vendors, you’re inheriting their security posture.

Ask your vendors about their security practices. Get it in writing.

Five Actions to Take This Week

Reading about threats is one thing. Doing something about them is another. Here are five concrete steps you can take immediately:

1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Everywhere

If you do nothing else, do this. MFA blocks the vast majority of credential-based attacks. Enable it on:

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Banking and financial accounts
Remote access and VPN
Any system that stores sensitive data

2. Test Your Backups

When was the last time you actually restored from backup? Do it this week. You might discover your backups aren’t as reliable as you assumed.

3. Train Your Team on AI-Enhanced Phishing

Your staff needs to know that phishing emails no longer have obvious tells. Implement a policy: any unexpected request for money, credentials, or sensitive data gets verified through a separate channel (call the person directly using a known number, not the one in the email).

4. Review Your Cyber Insurance

If you have cyber insurance, review your policy. Many policies have exclusions or requirements (like MFA) that could void coverage. If you don’t have cyber insurance, get quotes. The ransomware statistics make the case.

5. Get a Professional Security Assessment

You don’t know what you don’t know. An external assessment can identify vulnerabilities before attackers do. The goal is understanding your actual risk, not checking a compliance box.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Here’s what the Cyber Centre report makes clear: the threat is growing faster than most businesses are adapting.

Ransomware is up 26% year-over-year. AI is making attacks more sophisticated. The barrier to entry for cybercrime is dropping. And small businesses remain the soft targets that fund the entire ecosystem.

The businesses that will navigate this environment successfully are the ones that treat cybersecurity as a business priority, not an IT afterthought. That means investing in the right tools, training, and partnerships before an incident forces your hand.

How Raxxos Helps Lower Mainland Businesses Stay Protected

At Raxxos, we’ve been providing managed IT services to businesses in Surrey, Langley, and across the Lower Mainland for over 15 years. Cybersecurity is woven into everything we do.

Our approach includes:

24/7 Monitoring: We detect and respond to threats before they become incidents.
Managed Backups: Immutable, tested, and designed to recover from ransomware.
Security Awareness Training: Ongoing education to help your team recognize modern threats.
Microsoft 365 Security: Proper configuration and monitoring of your cloud environment.
Vendor Risk Management: Helping you understand and manage third-party risks.

Our goal is to give you an honest assessment of where you stand and what it would take to close the gaps.

Contact Raxxos today to schedule a free security assessment. Let’s find out where you’re vulnerable before someone else does.

Canada’s 2025 Cyber Threat Report: What BC Small Businesses Need to Know