Bell launches Bell Cyber, building on AI and tech services umbrella

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2025 (343 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Bell Canada is launching Bell Cyber, a new brand under its growing tech services umbrella which will offer AI-powered cybersecurity solutions.

The company made the announcement Tuesday at its inaugural Bell Cybersecurity Summit in Toronto, which heard from Bell Cyber’s leadership, government and law enforcement officials, as well as other industry stakeholders.

It said Bell Cyber unifies all of the company’s cybersecurity capabilities under a single brand. It also complements Bell’s other recent tech announcements, such as the launch of Bell AI Fabric and tech services brand Ateko.

Bell Cyber is the branding successor to Stratejm, a Mississauga, Ont.-based security services provider acquired by Bell in July 2024. The company has specialized in providing end-to-end security solutions with the use of artificial intelligence, including real-time threat detection and response.

It’s part of the Montreal-based telecom company’s ongoing evolution as it seeks to build a $1-billion tech services business.

BCE Inc. president and CEO Mirko Bibic told conference attendees that today’s Bell “is more than just a service provider.”

“What we do at Bell and Bell Cyber is we help financial institutions, governments, retailers, manufacturers and other organizations to improve security. We detect, we mitigate, and then we help resolve cyber attacks quickly,” he said in his opening remarks.

“We’re blending Bell’s internal security platforms and our telco-grade infrastructure, our resiliency DNA which we’ve had for 145 years, with Stratejm’s real-time threat detection and security operations centre capabilities.”

The move comes at a time when cybersecurity threats are growing, with companies and their customers facing potentially dire consequences if those risks aren’t adequately addressed.

Bell Cyber’s launch includes a new autonomous security operations centre. Bibic said the technology uses AI and automation to proactively detect and contain threats in under five minutes.

“What we’ve got is a truly differentiated and integrated force ready to defend against evolving threats, especially those powered by AI,” he said.

“It shifts the model from being reactive to pre-emptive defence, and it gives Bell Cyber customers unparalleled confidence in the face of these AI threats.”

The conference also heard pre-recorded remarks from Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon, who highlighted the importance of cybersecurity amid growing threats.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre estimates it receives around 110,000 to 125,000 reports of fraud per year. In 2024, the national police service said that reported fraud amounted to $648 million in losses, up from $578 million the previous year — 71 per cent of which was related to cybercrime, specifically, in both years.

But the “scary part” is that those dollar figures likely represent just five to 10 per cent of actual losses from fraud, said Chris Lynam, director general of the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre and Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

He said cyberthreats have become so rampant and sophisticated because those behind them “now operate very much like a business.”

“Unfortunately, cybercriminals have figured out how to use AI,” Lynam said in a presentation at the conference.

“They have figured out how to use normal large language models and jailbreak them or figure out how to use them for nefarious purposes and then they’ve also custom-created their own models that are specifically designed to support cybercrime.”

Talha Iqbal, senior director of Bell’s Cyber Intelligence Centre, said the company’s new autonomous security operations centre is built to address the complex nature of cybercrime.

He said digital threats “are moving at machine speed.” But legacy technologies can no longer keep up, Iqbal said, noting older systems that have long been used to contain such threats rely on manual processes.

The autonomous security operations centre resembles “a team of AI-driven digital analysts” operating at lightning speed, he said.

“These analysts are working around the clock to respond to your threats. They respond to the alerts, they analyze the events, they correlate the data and they build a containment strategy to take an action within minutes,” Iqbal said.

“We can protect large organizations without adding additional head count.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)