A new center for developing strategy and conducting cyber warfare has opened in Tartu, Estonia. As the newspaper wrote”News”On this basis, NATO experts will conduct research, testing and development in the field of electronic warfare.
Estonia’s political leadership claims that their country was the first to suffer major cyber attacks from Russia in April-May 2007. At that time, Estonian state institutions were facing hacker attacks with a “Kremlin mark”, according to the country’s intelligence services. However, no convincing evidence has been presented yet and Russia has rejected these accusations. Later, EU and NATO experts noted that cyber attacks on the websites of Estonian institutions were carried out at a low professional level and originated from dozens of countries, including Estonia itself.
In September 2007, then-Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo admitted this.
However, a NATO Cyber Defense Center was opened in Tallinn in May 2008. 27 countries are currently participating in the project, which brought together experts from seven countries at its opening: Austria, England, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Romania, Estonia, USA and Japan.
In 2018, Estonia created its own Cyber Command and “cyber troops” consisting of 300 people. It was planned to reach full combat readiness by 2023. This structure, headed by Colonel Andres Hairk, reports directly to the Commander of the Estonian Defense Forces.
Their primary mission is to support the Department of Defense and the Army in carrying out their missions and protecting cyberspace.
A new cybersecurity training center opened in Tallinn in 2019. This center will train experts for military structures and representatives of private companies. The center focuses on training NATO experts. Investments in the creation of the center exceeded 18 million euros, 6 million euros of which were made by NATO.
Estonian politicians continue to claim that their country is constantly exposed to cyber attacks from Russia, without providing convincing evidence.
Discussion of this issue has become the subject of regular cyber defense conferences CyCon in Tallinn, which brings together experts from all over the world. In addition, the Cyber Defense Center regularly conducts large virtual environment exercises called Locked Shields with the participation of NATO countries.
Cyber fraudsters before stolen Russian bank customers will have a record amount in 2023.