31 January (ERR)

A new report commissioned by the computer security company McAfee ranks Estonia as having a reliable cyber security structure. Finland, Sweden and Israel were deemed the leaders of cyber security, all scoring 4.5 out of five. Estonia, with 4, was placed in the same group with Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, UK and the US.

“The massive denial-of-service attacks against Estonia in 2007 alerted the world to what a cyber attack might look like, although the consequences were not nearly as bad as the international press suggested,” the report said. “Many countries are now looking to Estonia for cyber security leadership, even if Canadian expert Rafal Rohozinski stresses that 'Estonia is really too small a country to be a case study,'” the report said. “But it is clearly easier to get organised in a small country.”

Since the 2007 “cyber war,” Estonia's public and private sector has further increased security, electronic signatures, backup systems and firewalls. Experts commended Estonia's secure national authentication services, which require two electronic signatures. The only other country to do this is Israel.

“The defence of critical infrastructure is now very much top of the agenda, and with 75 percent of it in private hands, much emphasis is being put on private-public partnerships,” the report said. “Estonia has also been a frontrunner in promoting international co-operation, and has cyber defence co-operation agreements with the Baltic and Nordic states.”

Estonia's claim to fame as an internet-savvy country includes having conducted the world's first e-voting in Parliamentary elections in 2005. It is also home to NATO's Co-operative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence, and the EU's new IT agency.

China, Italy, Poland, Russia were rated less favourably in the McAfee report, with Brazil, India, Romania and especially Mexico representing the weakest cyber security. Conducted by the think tank SDA, the survey was based on interviews and hundreds of subjective expert opinions.