BURNABY — At Fortinet’s sprawling Burnaby campus, rows of cybersecurity analysts spend their days tracking malicious activity online – and they say cybercriminals are getting faster and more sophisticated. Derek Manky, the company’s chief security strategist, says Fortinet recorded roughly 12 billion cyberattacks targeting Canada in the first six months of 2025. He says much of that activity is fuelled by a growing underground economy that sells ready-made tools to would-be hackers. “We’re on the dark web every day, we’re threat-hunting, we’re creating those protections,” Manky said in an interview. The business model, known as “crime-as-a-service,” allows attackers to launch ransomware or data-theft campaigns without building their own software. Manky says it’s making criminals “faster” and “more sophisticated.” Manufacturers have been the most frequent victims of ransomware this year, he says, because disrupting their operations can quickly impact revenue, creating leverage for higher payouts. But health-care and critical infrastructure, once considered off-limits by many hackers, are now increasingly in the crosshairs. “When you have more affiliates working for you, everyone has a different mentality,” Manky said. “The ethics start to go out the window and it becomes more competitive.” The surge in attacks is putting pressure on cybersecurity teams, who must sort through massive volumes of alerts. Manky says advances in artificial intelligence are helping analysts cope by automating routine work and flagging the most urgent threats. “It’s helping triage and escalate things to the human expert,” he said. “It’s avoiding the analyst burnout and it’s allowing cybersecurity professionals to become excited again, to get new skill sets, to embrace the technology.” Fortinet’s most recent threat report highlights several trends shaping the global landscape, including a sharp rise in automated scans looking for weaknesses in industrial and Internet-of-Things systems, and an increase in stolen credentials being sold online. Founded in 2000, Fortinet’s Burnaby location has grown into one of the company’s largest global hubs, housing research, product development, and training teams. The facility is part of a network of more than 500 threat researchers worldwide who use AI to analyse millions of events every minute, blocking the vast majority before they reach their targets.
