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By Ivy Li

Amid Beijing’s trade war with Canada, the anxiety over the financial consequences of offending the Chinese Communist Party deepens. But would appeasing Beijing by allowing Huawei into our fifth-generation (5G) networks make real economic sense?

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With the emergence of 5G and the Internet of Things, communications technology will be overlain on our energy grid, connecting it with myriad devices and utilities. This would create numerous access points for penetration, and a cyber attack could easily be disguised with the large number and variety of sensors. Munk Senior Fellow Christian Leuprecht and Queen’s University professors David Skillicorn and Arthur Cockfield have shown how extremely difficult it will be to police the updates of so many network switches. Our grid might be smarter, but it will also be much more vulnerable.

Our grid might be smarter, but it will also be much more vulnerable

The first confirmed cyber-warfare attack affecting civilians occurred in Ukraine just before Christmas in 2015. Power was cut off to 103 cities and towns. In a repeat attack in December 2016, the malware managed to disrupt Ukraine’s grid without the hackers’ manual intervention.