Threat & Risk Assessment Services in Ottawa
Identify, prioritize, and act on security risks across your organization in Ottawa.
Ottawa is unlike any other Canadian city when it comes to the security risk environment its businesses operate in. The concentration of federal government departments, defence contractors, professional services firms, and technology companies with public-sector clients means that the threat landscape here includes adversaries with patience and resources that most organizations in other markets simply do not face. That reality does not mean every Ottawa business needs to operate like a defence agency — but it does mean that understanding your actual exposure, clearly and specifically, is more important here than almost anywhere else.
Privacy Horizon's Threat and Risk Assessment begins with a systematic identification of what you have and what realistic threats apply to your specific context. For Ottawa organizations, this often surfaces relationships and data flows that have grown in complexity over time — government contract data commingled with commercial operations, third-party access that was provisioned for a project and never reviewed, or systems that were adequate five years ago but now represent a meaningful gap against current threats.
Vulnerability analysis then examines how those threats could translate into harm. We assess technical controls, access management, operational practices, and the vendor and partner relationships that extend your security perimeter beyond your own walls. Every finding is evaluated for its realistic potential impact, and the resulting risk ranking gives your leadership team the information they need to make decisions with confidence — including in front of clients and procurement officers who increasingly ask hard questions about security posture.
The remediation roadmap that concludes the engagement is not a generic list of best practices. It is a prioritized, sequenced plan built for your organization's specific environment and resources. Ottawa private-sector businesses are governed by PIPEDA, Canada's federal private-sector privacy law. A security breach involving personal information triggers mandatory breach reporting obligations to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The TRA is the proactive work that reduces the probability of reaching that point — and gives you the evidence to demonstrate due diligence if you ever do.
Privacy & security regulation in Ottawa
Regulator: Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
Ottawa businesses are governed by Canada's federal private-sector privacy law, PIPEDA, overseen by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Personal health information in Ontario is separately governed by the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), with oversight by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
PIPEDAPersonal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
PIPEDA is Canada's federal private-sector privacy law. It sets out ten fair information principles governing how organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity. It applies wherever a province has not enacted substantially similar legislation — and, even in provinces that have (Alberta, British Columbia, Québec), it continues to apply to federally regulated businesses such as banks, airlines, and telecommunications, and to personal information that flows across provincial or national borders.
PHIPAPersonal Health Information Protection Act, 2004
PHIPA governs how health information custodians in Ontario — a defined, closed list of providers such as hospitals, physicians, and pharmacies — collect, use, and disclose personal health information. It establishes consent rules and individual access rights, and requires custodians to notify affected individuals at the first reasonable opportunity following a breach, and to report to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario in the circumstances the Act prescribes.
What Threat & Risk Assessment includes
A threat and risk assessment (TRA) gives you a clear, prioritized view of where your security risks are and what to do about them first.
Asset & Threat Identification
Map what you're protecting and what threatens it.
Vulnerability Analysis
Find the weaknesses that matter most.
Risk Prioritization
Rank risks by likelihood and impact, not guesswork.
Remediation Roadmap
A practical plan to reduce risk in priority order.
The public-sector supply chain creates unique exposure
Ottawa's technology and professional services ecosystem is deeply intertwined with federal government procurement. That relationship is commercially valuable — and it creates security obligations that go beyond what most commercial contracts require. Government clients increasingly require evidence of a formal security risk assessment as part of contract qualification. Privacy Horizon's TRA is structured to produce documentation that satisfies those requirements while also generating genuine internal value.
Ontario health organizations face an additional layer of obligations
Ottawa-area health information custodians — clinics, pharmacies, community health organizations — are governed by Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), in addition to PIPEDA. PHIPA requires notification of affected individuals and reporting to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario following a breach. A TRA helps health sector organizations understand and reduce the security vulnerabilities that make a PHIPA-reportable incident more likely.
Other services in Ottawa
Threat & Risk Assessment elsewhere
What's Protecting Your Business from the Next Threat?
Don't wait for a breach to expose your vulnerabilities. Let Privacy Horizon secure your data, ensure compliance, and build lasting trust.