-Sambridhi Tuladhar and Ritika Pradhanang
Through its e-Estonian initiative it has developed a digital society and built one of the most technologically advanced government in the world. Practically, the government service is paperless and performed electronically. As a result, Estonia is highly depended on its information system and data stored in them.
Estonia had its first experience with cyber security back in 2007 when attacks managed to take 58 Estonian websites offline at once including those of governments, newspapers and banks. This cyber-attack in Estonia demonstrated the need for an outside country solution which was discussed for several years by cyber security experts. To address this problem Estonia launched the world’s first digital embassy- servers outside the country that are legally under Estonian jurisdiction.
While the benefits of a paper less government are immense, it does raise a few challenges. One of the issue is how to secure data that could become vulnerable in an event of cyber terrorism. The digital embassy is still very new and not yet fully developed and implemented. Much of the initial attack has been intellectual but it has also encountered legal challenges which primarily revolve around the security of data.
One of the key lessons learned is the importance of finding partners who think similarly and are eager to innovate, and with whom mutual trust exists or can be built. After the first digital center of Estonia in Luxembourg is fully implemented, the government of Estonia is likely to open additional data embassies in other countries. The concept should be considered by every government as countries become more and more technologically advanced.
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