Seventeen billion. That’s how many cyberattacks hit Canadians last year, making Canada the second-most targeted country in the world for ransomware, with nearly 400 Canadian organizations extorted. While cyberattacks aren’t new, they are growing in prevalence and sophistication, and reality is that many companies don’t have the knowledge or expertise to stay one step ahead of hackers and scammers.
These were among the challenges discussed at the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit West 2026, marking the global conference series’ Western Canadian debut, which brought together customers, partners, and cybersecurity leaders to explore the ideas and technologies facing Western Canada’s cyber future.
The agenda tackled pressing themes like securing AI transformation, the rise of a new cybercrime economy, closing the cybersecurity skills gap, and AI-driven threats targeting the industrial systems that power Alberta’s economy. It was also an event that highlighted Fortinet’s investment in Canada and generated excitement for the new $30 million Cybersecurity Innovation Hub that recently opened its doors in Calgary.
“It’s not just a building; it’s a community hub,” Pedro Paixão, Fortinet’s Senior Vice President of Latin America and Canada Sales, tells MobileSyrup. “We want people to come in, test the technologies, simulate their environments, and make sure that security tomorrow is going to be better than what they have today.”
Cybersecurity in Western Canada
Image credit: Fortinet
Alberta is a particularly attractive target for cybercrime, as its energy sector, agriculture, and public services represent the kind of high-value targets that sophisticated criminals are increasingly focused on. The consequences of a successful attack would be dire. Ask yourself, what would happen if that critical infrastructure were to become unavailable?
“It’s about protecting not just one institution or infrastructure, but providing resiliency to the whole economy and country that, without those things, can’t function,” Paixão explains.
The AI influence
Image credit: Fortinet
Conference keynote speaker and Fortinet’s Vice President of Global Threat Intelligence Derek Manky described the influx as a “worldwide pandemic of cybercrime.” What used to be a lone hacker in a basement or an organized criminal enterprise has transformed into an AI-powered attack generation, capable of breaking into systems and creating playbooks for attacking at a faster pace.
It also doesn’t help that people are sending private documents, emails, and pictures to AI services just so they can write a better email to their boss, or generate an image of what they would’ve looked like in the 80s. Information that was once only leaked by bad actors and disgruntled employees is now offered up willingly. For public sector organizations, keeping sensitive data on Canadian soil is a top priority.
“Public sector customers hold a lot of data, and need to protect a lot of data, and that data needs to stay in Canada,” says Gordon Phillips, Regional Vice President, Western Canada Sales, at Fortinet. “Our Calgary office supports data sovereignty by adding to the multiple data centres and workplaces we already have.”
Fortinet by the numbers
Gordon Phillips speaks at Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit West 2026 | Image credit: Fortinet
Fortinet has been investing in Canada for 26 years, and now employs over 2,750 people across the country, with additional major campuses in Burnaby and Ottawa. As organizations across Western Canada modernize their operations, Fortinet’s expanded Calgary presence brings more expertise, technology, and resources closer to the customers navigating that shift.
The innovation hub was developed with the support of the Government of Alberta, Invest Alberta, and Calgary Economic Development – a reflection of how seriously Alberta’s institutions are taking cybersecurity.
So, how exactly is Fortinet closing the cybersecurity skills gap? At the foundation of everything it does is industry-recognized certification and training, which takes place in a 4,000-square-feet state-of-the-art facility that can handle teams of up to 30 people in the Calgary Innovation Hub alone. That capacity is expanded when including the Burnaby and Ottawa campuses. In 2022, Fortinet set a goal of training one million people within five years, and hit that goal six months early.
Pedro Paixão speaks at Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit West 2026 | Image credit: Fortinet
But education doesn’t stop with working professionals. Fortinet is developing the future of the workforce and empowering students of all ages to be tech-educated with cyber courses from kindergarten to university level.
As part of that commitment, Fortinet has also established a new annual scholarship with the University of Calgary, awarding $3,000 a year for five years to a student pursuing a degree in computer science or engineering.
“Our lives are online, so we can’t escape not touching a phone every day,” says Paixão. “The importance is starting with the people, then the institutions, then the companies. If we don’t invest at all levels, we’re basically leaving some of it behind.”
Looking ahead
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It can all sound a bit frightening at the macro level, but when it comes to the future of cybersecurity, both Paixão and Phillips remain hopeful.
“We have wonderful ideas around the Calgary Innovation Hub,” says Phillips. “Training facilities will upskill talent, it’ll provide cybersecurity awareness, and the idea is to just reduce the number of threat vectors in any way we can.”
“The future in terms of cybersecurity as an industry has a lot of room to grow,” adds Paixão. “And the future here in Canada is the expansion of our footprint. We want to hire more talent and develop more talent, and those things are very exciting.”
Learn more about Fortinet’s impact in Canada.
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