Looking at the State of Cybercrime in Calgary 2025…

In 2025, cyber-threats are no longer a “future” problem—they are now a present and escalating risk for businesses of all sizes. For Calgary-area firms, this means the time to act is now. Below we’ll explore the current threat landscape, illustrate what it means for local businesses, and explain how trusted cybersecurity services can make the difference between recovery and collapse.

Growing Threats & Rising Costs

Across Canada, recent surveys and reports underscore the severity of the risk.

• A survey by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) conducted in August 2025 found that only 47% of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises say they are prepared for a cyber-attack or data breach. IBC

  • Fewer than half (48%) have implemented any form of cyber defence. Insurance Business America

  • Only 22% carry any form of cyber insurance, and just 12% hold a dedicated stand-alone cyber policy. IBC

• Additional data from a 2025 survey by Zensurance (published October 10, 2025) found that among Canadian small business owners, 53% had already experienced a cyber-incident; phishing attacks hit 46% of those surveyed. Zensurance

• These figures reflect two critical issues: (1) the risk is real and happening now, and (2) many businesses are under-prepared to deal with it.

The cost of cyber-incidents continues to climb. While local Calgary-specific cost data remains scarce (we’ll explain what that means for your narrative), the national context is clear: downtime, forensic and remediation costs, legal/regulatory exposure, and reputational damage can all stack up quickly.

Why Calgary Businesses Are At Risk of Cybercrime in 2025

Calgary is home to a dynamic mix of businesses—professional services, construction & trades, energy and supply-chain firms, tech startups—that increasingly rely on digital workflows, remote connectivity, vendor platforms, and cloud-based services. This environment creates multiple vectors for cyber attackers.

Key risk factors:

• High exposure via third-party vendors and supply-chain: Many Calgary firms work with upstream or downstream partners (often in oil & gas, logistics, or construction) whose systems may be less secure—any weak link can cascade.

• Under-prepared SMB sector: With fewer than half of Canadian SMEs prepared for an attack, it’s reasonable to infer that a large portion of Calgary’s smaller firms are exposed.

• Smaller firms often lack dedicated cybersecurity resources: Without internal teams, incident response plans, or regular security audits, the chance that an incident becomes a crisis increases.

• Reputational & operational stakes are high locally: In tight business ecosystems (Calgary vendors, contractors, service providers), a cyber-incident can affect contract eligibility, client trust, insurance terms, and regulatory reputation.

What Calgary Businesses Should Be Doing Right Now

The question isn’t if you’ll face a cyber-incident—it’s when and how prepared you’ll be. The good news: with the right proactive steps, you can significantly reduce the risk, shorten recovery time, and protect your business continuity.

Immediate steps:

1. Conduct a security posture assessment: How many employee accounts, systems, cloud apps, vendor links do you have? Where are your weak points?

2. Train your team and simulate real-world attacks: Phishing still remains one of the top gateways for cyber-events. Testing and education matter.

3. Validate your backups and recovery plan: It’s not enough to have backups—they must be tested, timely, and effective.

4. Look at cyber-insurance and incident-response readiness: Given the gap in preparedness, assessing your insurance and knowing your steps in the event of an incident is critical.

5. Manage vendor and supply-chain risk: Map out your third-party dependencies and ensure your vendors meet security standards.

6. Treat cyberrisk as a business risk, not just an IT risk: Cyber-incidents impact operations, reputation, regulatory exposure—and your board or executive team needs visibility.

How We Help – Tailored Cybersecurity Services in Calgary

At Pure IT, we specialize in supporting Calgary businesses with proactive and pragmatic cybersecurity services designed for the region and your business size and industry. Here’s how we work—and why it matters.

Our service offerings:

• Managed Detection & Response (MDR): 24/7 monitoring, threat-hunting, rapid containment of incidents—so you can detect intrusions early and reduce damage.

• Security posture assessments & roadmap development: We audit your current state (people, process, technology) and build a realistic roadmap aligned with your budget and growth phase.

• Cyber-awareness training + phishing simulation: Because most breaches start with a human click, we train your team and simulate attacks to build muscle memory.

• Incident readiness & response planning: We create and test your incident response playbook so if the worst happens, you’re ready rather than reactive.

• Business-continuity & backup validation: We help ensure your backups work, they restore reliably, and downtime gets minimised.

• Cyber-insurance advisory: We assist in reviewing your current coverage and clarifying what your policy actually protects—and what it doesn’t.

• Vendor & supply-chain risk management: We help you map and address risk from third parties, which is especially relevant in Calgary’s interconnected business networks.

Why this matters for Calgary:

• We understand the local business ecosystem: firms in energy, tech, construction, professional services—we know your dynamics.

• We speak Canadian/Alberta regulatory and compliance language: our recommendations align with local realities (privacy laws, vendor networks, regional operations).

• Affordability and scalability: Our services are designed for SMBs and mid-sized firms—so you get enterprise-grade practices without enterprise-grade cost or complexity.

• Growth-friendly: We’re not just about “keeping you safe”—we help you operate with confidence and scale securely.

Final Thoughts

Cyber-crime is no longer just a headline—it’s a business risk with real financial, operational and reputational consequences. For Calgary businesses, the national data is a powerful warning: fewer than half of firms say they are prepared, and incidents like phishing, ransomware and supply-chain breaches are on the rise.

But you don’t have to be a victim. With proactive planning, the right partner and a clear roadmap, you can strengthen your defences, reduce your exposure, and respond faster when something does go wrong.

If your business is based in Calgary or Alberta and you’d like to talk about your specific risk, prepare a roadmap, or test your readiness – reach out to us at Pure IT. Let’s make sure you’re not just “next on the radar” for cyber-criminals—but tough to hit, and even tougher to knock down.