Propulsion Québec
Cluster for Electric and Smart Transportation

News

Is there a regulatory framework for location data?

Blogue

Analysing location data can help service providers assess whether to boost services in one part of a city versus another, at a particular time of day or in preparation for an upcoming festival, for instance. However, the data used for these analyses is linked to individuals and makes it possible to identify them. City planners and business managers working to improve our ever-changing environment must incorporate the rules for privacy protection into their activities. But what are these rules?

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MERKUR, new official partner of Propulsion Québec

Press release

Montreal, June 16, 2020 — Propulsion Québec, the Cluster for Electric and Smart Transportation (EST), is pleased to announce a new partnership with Merkur, a manufacturing performance and product development firm known for its expertise in ground transportation. This one-year renewable partnership will allow Merkur to be a stakeholder in transportation electrification in Quebec and enable Propulsion Québec to complete its alignment with the ground transportation supply chain.

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Desjardins Group, now a major partner of Propulsion Québec

Press release

Montreal, May 19, 2021 — Propulsion Québec, the cluster for electric and smart transportation (EST), is pleased to announce a new partnership with Desjardins, Canada’s leading cooperative financial group. This one-year partnership will support Desjardins Group’s sustainable development policy objectives tied to sustainable and connected mobility.

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What are the key challenges for electrifying fleets?

Blogue

Electrification of transport is gaining significant momentum worldwide and whether the fleet is a commercial fleet, a municipality fleet or a bus fleet, they all share common challenges in transitioning to an electric future. Here we explore those common themes and how depot digital solutions are key to successfully navigating the transition.

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FLO| AddÉnergie: investing in sustainable transport

Blogue

FLO| AddÉnergie, a company specializing in electric vehicle charging stations, is a manufacturer, network manager and software developer all in one. The three areas of expertise give it a huge advantage in the promising North American electrification market, and the Fonds is proud to be financing its efforts.

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Third edition of IMPULSION MTL: Propulsion Québec announces the International Fleet Forum will return to an in-person format

Événements

Propulsion Québec, the cluster for electric and smart transportation, is pleased to announce that the third edition of the IMPULSION MTL International Fleet Forum will take place in person September 21 to 23, 2021, at Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn more about a variety of topics tied to updating, managing, and electrifying fleets.

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How the transition to electric transportation impacts manufacturing companies

Blogue

At the moment, when the transportation industry was reaching a steady point of maturity, the idea of electric powered transportation arrived and shook up the entire industry. The electrification of transportation affects many functions within manufacturing companies, both in terms of developing technologies and the speed at which they are developed. Companies must now be constantly adapting to this now ever-evolving industry whether it be in the engineering, manufacturing operation or procurement process. In order to navigate these changes with ease, it is critical that companies develop a strategy, to understand the speed of product evolution and how it impacts one’s factory and supply chain.

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LiDAR and AI in autonomous vehicle commercialization and functional safety

Blogue

The story of smart, autonomous transportation began nearly half a century ago. In the early 1980s, avionics systems started to replace more traditional mechanical and hydraulic systems through calculators and embedded software. To tackle this challenge, different standards were created to guarantee the functional safety of these embedded systems, namely the DO-178 standard, which has been updated twice to address growing complexity in recent software.

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Desjardins focused on net zero emissions for 2040

Blogue

Desjardins Group has announced an ambitious action plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2040 in its extended operations and in its lending activities and own investments in three key carbon-intensive sectors: energy, transportation and real estate.

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Why cyber hygiene should be a top priority

Blogue

With cybercrime damages expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, this evolving issue shouldn’t be taken lightly. Threat actors continue to develop new ways to attack organizations, though only 60% of public transit agencies have a cybersecurity strategy in place.

That’s where cyber hygiene comes in.

By maintaining the security and upkeep of your organization’s systems, devices, and procedures – whether that’s through secure corporate communication or purchasing cyber liability insurance, among other options – you greatly lower your chances of falling victim to a cyber attack.

 

The initial step: supply chain risk management

Cyber threats are lurking everywhere. That’s why it’s important to do everything you can to limit your organization’s vulnerabilities. Through supply chain risk management, you can maintain a strong network of trusted vendors while securing your end-to-end supply chain. This strengthens your organization’s physical security and helps protect against potential cyber attacks.

It’s important to communicate and work closely with your partners and vendors, to get an in-depth understanding of their data and privacy protection policies. After all, the highest level of resilience against cyber threats isn’t achieved alone. It happens when everyone involved commits to upholding best practices.

You can establish this dialogue by asking your vendors and partners the following questions, which are discussed in detail on our Network of Trust page:

  • How transparent are my vendors with vulnerabilities?
  • Do my vendors prioritize security in the development of their products?
  • Do they have a comprehensive strategy in place to close security gaps and vulnerabilities?

Asking these questions puts your organization in the best position to prevent, and in the worst case respond to, a cyber attack.

 

Detecting suspicious communications

Threat actors use social engineering campaigns – like phishing attacks or pretexting – to bait you into unknowingly providing sensitive information, giving them access to your private data. For that reason, ensuring that all your employees can effectively detect and avoid suspicious communication attempts is vital to your organization’s physical security.

While mistakes happen, keeping an eye out for unusual communication requests, and thinking before you click on any links or messages, are some of the ways that you can help to protect your organization against cyber attacks.

 

Providing consistent user education from the start

Since the repercussions of a cyber attack can have a long-lasting negative impact on your organization — whether it be in the form of a financial hit or data loss — providing consistent user education to your employees is an investment that goes a long way.

Educating your employees on cyber hygiene is an ongoing task that should begin during their onboarding. By explaining the importance of strategies like strong password selection, locking devices, and identifying social engineering attacks, your organization can limit the chances for human error while maintaining best practices.

 

Adding a layer of security with cyber liability insurance

There are as many as 12 different types of coverage available for cyber threats, which means that you’ll have to do some research before finding a cyber liability insurance package that can meet your organization’s needs. With cyber attacks on the rise, investing in the right package should be an essential part of your cybersecurity strategy.

Because such a wide range of options are available, reading the fine print is a key part of your insurance selection process, as that’ll determine the exact coverage that you’d receive in the case of a cyber attack.

Alongside a careful selection process, understanding the claims process for your package is important, to help prevent added confusion and stress in the case of a cyber attack.

While cyber liability insurance is a good way to help mitigate the financial risk of cyber attacks, vetting your vendors, partners, systems, and devices, and establishing an effective cyber risk mitigation plan are all equally-essential steps to protecting your organization against cyber attacks. Always remember that any vulnerability is one too many.

 

Good cyber hygiene is a team effort

Cyber hygiene isn’t only about securing systems and devices, but it requires time and attention to many aspects of your organization. Because your physical security system is only as secure as the least trusted device connected to it, there isn’t much room for error. Focusing on maintaining strong cyber hygiene through supply chain risk management, secure exchanges, user education, and cyber liability insurance are some of the key ways that you can protect your organization against evolving cyber threats.

Learn more about how to build a strong physical security foundation by checking out our Trust Center, which features a wide array of relevant information and resources at your disposal.

 

About Genetec

Genetec Inc. develops open platform software, hardware and cloud-based services for the physical security and public safety industry. Its flagship product, Security Center, unifies IP-based video surveillance, access control and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) into one platform. This platform is used and trusted in various other industries, including traffic and transit.

 

This blog post is made possible by our great partner Genetec as part of the Transportation Cybersecurity and functional safety Forum, an initiative of Propulsion Québec and supported by the Quebec government.

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