Estonia, a Baltic nation with a population roughly 50 times smaller than France's, has become a global model for cybersecurity nearly two decades after Russia hit the country with a massive cyberattack, according to a report broadcast on TF1's evening news. The report comes as France has recorded more than 43 million hacked online accounts since the start of the year.
In Estonia, residents carry a national identity card fitted with a secure chip that functions as far more than proof of identity. Gauthier Le Masne, a French expatriate who has lived in the country for 16 years, said the card lets him access his prescriptions and go straight to the pharmacy. His Estonian wife, Heili Le Masne, said she has used the card to vote online, calling the process very easy.
Le Masne told TF1 he uses the card for nearly everything, including paying his taxes in three minutes, accessing his medical records, getting married and even buying a house. He said that in France, the national secure documents agency, ANTS, had been hacked, whereas the system works better in Estonia. His wife said she trusts the system, though she added she does not work in the field and cannot vouch for it from the inside.
Preparing constantly for the next attack
Estonia's transformation dates back to 2007, when a massive Russian cyberattack paralyzed the country's ministries, media outlets and banks for three weeks. Since then, cybersecurity has become an absolute priority, described in the report as close to an obsession for the Baltic state.
Estonia's Ministry of Defense runs cyber-exercises every 50 days in a highly secretive zone. Martin Hanson, the ministry's director of communications, said each team is assigned one of the computers to defend, and that these are real machines used around the world. He said the country's military, businesses and state services take part in training that sometimes stretches over entire weeks.
Hanson said Estonia runs attacks against its own systems in order to prepare its defenses, and urged France to do the same. Even if the danger is not visible, he said, the message is simple: prepare.
Cybersecurity taught from primary school
Estonia also relies on a reservist model similar to its armed forces. The country's cyberdefense unit is made up of hundreds of volunteer computer specialists who can be mobilized at any moment if an attack occurs.
Awareness campaigns start in primary school and continue through university, so that every Estonian internet user grows up conscious of digital security. Taaniel Kraavi, a professor and cybersecurity expert who advises the Estonian government, said the country has to train people capable of providing that security itself, since it does not necessarily have the money to buy it elsewhere.
Russia has continued targeting Estonia with cyberattacks, which the report says have tripled over the past six years. Estonian officials say the country knows exactly what to do on the day one of those attacks eventually breaches its defenses.
