Fearful of Russian cyber attack or invasion, the Baltic state of Estonia is planning to make a virtual copy of itself — in Britain.
Negotiations are under way between Tallinn and London for Estonia to back up terabytes of data — everything from birth records and the electoral roll to property deeds, banking credentials and the entire government bureaucracy — to deposit in a secure location in the UK, according to Estonian officials. Estonia already uses its embassies abroad to house servers to safeguard copies of government files. But amid an escalation of tensions with Moscow and growing concerns about cyber attacks from its eastern neighbour, Tallinn is now planning a far more ambitious set of contingency measures. It is a project that speaks to anxieties in the region, as well as the nature of statehood itself — and war — in an increasingly digitised world. “We have a very aggressive neighbour and we need to be sure that whatever happens to our territory in the future, Estonia can survive,” said Taavi Kotka, the government’s cyber chief. “In Estonia we already vote over the internet, we pay taxes over the internet — there’s almost nothing now we don’t do digitally.”
He added that if something “really bad happened, we want to be able to say that our country still remains — we will still be able to be a country even if we don’t have our territory.” A British government spokesperson confirmed the UK has had initial discussions with Estonia “about a joint data management project.”
Estonia was the victim of a crude but devastating Russian-backed cyber attack in 2007 — an apparent reprisal for the relocation of a divisive Soviet-era grave marker, the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn — that crippled banks, media, the government and telecoms networks. The country has regarded its digital security as a top priority ever since.
“When people talk about cyber attacks there is usually a lot of fear [mongering] and demons,” Mr Kotka said. “But in Estonia people have lived through it — they know what happens and that means we take it seriously.”
Full Article: Cyber threats prompt Estonia to set up UK data centre – FT.com.