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

Photo: president.ee

The key theme of the president's remarks was identity and, more specifically, who should be responsible for securing and guaranteeing it in society. He outlined the concepts of DDOS attacks and how they had been used to target Estonia in 2007, writes LETA.

Asked by former UK Security Minister Baroness Neville-Jones on how vulnerable he considers Western nations to cyber-crime, he commented that the issue is more problematic for the “English speaking peoples” who are often more nervous about the role of identity and identity management. He suggested that whereas only governments previously had the monopoly on military force, it should now take on the role of guaranteeing the identity of its citizens and that a cultural change was necessary. On the subject of data ownership he outlined that in Estonia the citizen owns the individual data about him or her and that any abuse of that data would be regarded as an abuse against the person itself.

Former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind put to President Ilves that some have been quoted as saying as much as 80 percent of the cyber-crime which troubles society could be defeated – Ilves replied that a higher proportion could actually be stopped with the right techniques and strategies. He made reference to the US Department of Defense Security Technical Implementation Guide – whereas the US has managed only to fulfill several criteria, Estonia has met them all and has done for some time. On the subject of state sponsored cybercrime, he noted the problem of third party aggression being carried out on behalf of other states. The problem lies in identifying who is behind the attacks.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves warned about mobile apps and the effect on personal data.

Whereas people are guarded about the state having access to their information, they willingly hand over statistics based on their own movements or personal health to mobile apps which then seek to monetize them in less than obvious ways. Ilves highlighted that citizens should be aware of data privacy and beware of misuse of their precious personal information.

"There’s no such thing as a free app”, Estonian president joked.

Ilves returned to Estonia on Tuesday.

Estonian World is a London-based online magazine founded in 2012 to write about cosmopolitan Estonians and their views, ideas, experiences and achievements.

http://estonianworld.com/technology/president-ilves-no-such-thing-as-a-free-app/