Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Legislation, Security, Technology

Photo: valitsus.ee

The aim of the international conference dedicated to the security risk found in Estonian ID-cards is to bring together experts and opinion leaders both from the public and private sector in order to jointly analyze the lessons learned from detecting and eliminating the ID-card security risk and develop future steps, government spokespeople said.

"The success story of the e-state can only be based on cooperation, in which a role of their own is played by strong IT specialists from the private sector, researchers from universities as well as a smart state that skillfully handles their knowledge," Ratas said in his speech.

The prime minister emphasized that it is namely people who are the decisive factor in the process of solving a crisis. "If alongside correcting old mistakes and keeping IT systems working we also wish to develop them, we must invest significantly more than before and not only in systems, but also people. Competent people are the key issue of the digital society -- this was definitely one of the biggest lessons from the crisis."

According to Ratas, Estonia passed the largest challenge of the history of its digital country successfully. This is affirmed by the fact that the temporary ID-card vulnerability was not managed to be criminally abused before a solution was found and that people's trust in e-services remained high. "Digital security risks are a challenge, which the entire world as well as Estonia must constantly take into account. This means correcting mistakes when they are detected, learning from them and seeking better and more innovative solutions. We must do preventive work and always be a step ahead of risks when it comes to security," the prime minister said.