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Week 10: Cybersecurity in Estonia

In this week’s blog I am going to talk about cybersecurity in Estonia based on the Kevin Mitnick formula. The formula describes security by three aspects: technology, training and policies.

The first aspect - technology - covers encryption, firewalls, antivirus software, etc. Training, in my opinion, one of the most important parts, covers security awareness in general amongst people. And finally, policies, which is more of the bureaucratic part, having rules on who can do what.

In general, when it comes to technology, I would say that Estonia is well ahead of most countries, as pretty much all of our public services have been available online for quite some time now. We have an e-voting system, e-residency, and pretty much everyone owns an ID card which allows you to use banks, healthcare systems all online. So for that to be reliable, Estonia had to and has to contribute quite a lot to the security aspect of it.

When it comes to training, after the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia, the country has taken it a lot more seriously. In 2008 a cyber defense center (NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence or the CCD COE) was created here in Tallinn, which focuses on research, development, and training. By training, Estonia has become more prepared for future cyber-attacks.

I would say that the biggest deficiencies are in the policy aspect, but I think that's in pretty much every country, as cyber-crime is still so new and fastly growing that the slow and bureaucratic aspect of fighting against it just can't keep up. But Estonia is at least a good example of a country that is trying to bring awareness to this aspect and is working on the problem on a multinational level with allies, as cybercrime is a borderless problem.

Compared to some other countries, overall Estonia is quite developed in the field and one of the leading countries in cybersecurity, altho we still have room for improvement. So hopefully, we won't just rest on our laurels and will continue to develop cybersecurity in our country.

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