Estonia eyes more cooperation with India on cyber security

The Estonian Govt is keen on more cooperation with India on Cyber Security front and has welcomed India's push on Digital Public Infrastructure. Speaking to Wion's Sidhant Sibal in Tallinn, Estonia's Digital Affairs & Justice Minister said,"We are looking for a more exchange of specialists cyber security specialists, and we are also looking for more joint research projects" with India.

Estonia, a pioneer in digital governance, has fortified its cybersecurity measures following significant cyberattacks, notably in 2007. It has also hosted "Locked Shields," the world's largest annual cyber defence exercise that showcases Estonia's advanced cybersecurity capabilities.

The minister welcomed India's digital public infrastructure push. She pointed,'I really believe this is something that makes democracy even stronger because all the digital solutions are much more transparent'.

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Full interview

WION: Cooperation you're looking for between India and Estonia when it comes to digital affairs

Liisa-Ly Pakosta: India is a very, very important partner to Estonia. We have cyber security cooperation already there because in cyber security, you cannot do alone. It's a global issue for like-minded countries to protect the democracies. So we value, from the Estonian side, very highly this cyber security cooperation that we have with India. We also value very highly the possibilities for the students and IT specialists, nearly 2000 IT specialists, people are working from India in Estonia, and I'm sure they get very good competencies and experiences from our country, and they build very good personal connections between our two countries. We are looking for more cooperation, especially in the very how to solve very specific questions, because your country has so much potential and so many talented people. So we are absolutely interested to work on with some specific issues where we can really offer better services for our citizens, better education, better health care and all these things.

WION: Ma'am, India has lot of major initiatives, whether it's digital identification system, which is called the Aadhaar card, you must have heard about it, whether it's the UPI. I mean, if you go around India today, you can pay using your mobile. You don't have to carry cash as well. How do you see these initiatives as and are you looking at some kind of cooperation with India regarding these initiatives?

Liisa-Ly Pakosta: What we actually are looking now nowadays is that it's not only banking and paying with a mobile phone, but you have all the services from the government on the mobile phone, and also your documents are at the mobile phone. Estonia has a state app with all the documents. So when we are, for example, talking about border crossing, then it absolutely needs that two governments work together and see how it's legally possible. So the future we are looking for is much more efficient, from bureaucrat free of bureaucratic documents and everything, and smoothly moving on trust-based digital solutions. If you said that your people are already trusting the bank system that they can use their mobile phone, of course it's the same here, but you can build further trust on that with your digital ID, and it's very important that it is really trusted by people, that it is fully trackable, that is fully transparent, as it is in Estonia, so that people really can trust while they give their data to the government, to offer better services from the government side, that people really own the data, that they really can control everything that is very important.

WION:But how do you see India's focus on UPA, on Aadhar card, and these kinds of initiatives? India's push for digital public infrastructure?

Liisa-Ly Pakosta: I see it very positive because I really believe this is something that makes democracy even stronger, because all the digital solutions are much more transparent, much more trackable by people than the paper solutions are, and it also means much less corruption. So this is what we have proved here in Estonia, with quite a high corruption level after we regained our independence, after the Russian occupation, but now topping in the world with low corruption index. So this is very important. And of course, as you as a very talented country, when you find some good solutions that we can copy, we are interested in that. And we have a lot of experiences and examples that you can upscale, that you can use, that you can copy. Why not to do so? Because Estonia has really had a long experience already. This is the kind of cooperation we are definitely looking for.

WION: My last question to you is about what's happening in Europe since the outbreak of the war that has happened in Ukraine. How much has Estonian cyber security been tested?

Liisa-Ly Pakosta: As a neighbouring country of Russia. So we have really built everything in our digital society with the highest level of cyber security. So cyber security is in our hygiene, but at the same time now with a full-scale war, with Russian aggression against Ukraine, we see a rising number of cyber-attacks, and Estonia has been resilient. Estonia has stood against all these attacks, so our government systems stand strongly, but we all at the same time, we invest much more to cyber security, and we also cooperate much more tightly with Ukraine. We have very valuable lessons. We have learned from Ukraine. Ukrainians are learning from us so in a broader sense, I am very happy that we also have a very good cyber security cooperation with India, because cyber security is really something that you need very good cooperation between democratic countries.

WION: If you can just elaborate on the cyber security cooperation with India. What are the deliverables we are looking at?

Liisa-Ly Pakosta We have regular meetings, but we are looking for a more exchange of specialists cyber security specialists, and we are also looking for more joint research projects.