Cities are becoming smarter every day, and many state and local governments are pushing towards the digitalization of public services. Some North American cities are working hard to integrate online services and manage cybersecurity risk at the same time. Meanwhile, perhaps the best example of a digital city is in fact a digital country.
The Republic of Estonia is well on its way to setting itself up as a fully digital society. As the world’s most digitally enabled nation, most government functions operate online — including health care and voting. The country is almost entirely cashless and was the first to implement smart parking. In 2017 Estonia legalized testing of autonomous vehicles. In the country’s 2019 elections, nearly half of Estonians voted online.
None of this is possible without a cybersecurity-first mindset.
How is Estonia pulling this off? What is the country doing to foster so much trust in the system? And how can the country’s collective mindset provide a potential blueprint for success?
Estonia’s Decades-Long Digital Growth
Estonia’s national cybersecurity strategy has evolved since its inception in 2008, encompassing everything from protecting critical infrastructure, fighting against cyber crime and boosting information security competence. That’s on top of an effort in place since the early 2000s to set up online voting and other services.
The government created the current cybersecurity strategy (2019-2022) with the goal of establishing Estonia as the most resilient digital society.
Anett Numa, digital transformation advisor for e-estonia, consults and advises foreign governments about lessons Estonia has learned since implementing its digital society and how governments can collaborate on ..
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