While government continues to restore systems affected by a recent cyber attack on the province’s health care sector, a new national poll shows that Canadians have little confidence in the ability of certain institutions to fend off similar attacks.

Angus Reid says critical Canadian infrastructure was the target of more than 100 ransomware attacks in 2021.

New data collected by the pollster shows that many Canadians lack confidence in the ability of key institutions to defend themselves from cyber threats.

Half of Canadians asked say they aren’t confident that their local health authority has up-to-date, high-quality cybersecurity, while two in five (or 43 per cent) say they believe the right defensive tools are in place.

A majority of Canadians asked say they would prefer to fight than give in to hackers, and 65 per cent would live with service disruptions rather than pay a ransom.