How Estonia is bracing for intensifying cyberthreats

A cyberattack this week caused refrigerators at a Selver supermarket in Estonia to heat up to 50 degrees Celsius. Similar incidents were reported in 11 European countries, raising concerns about how vulnerable essential everyday systems are. Estonian officials and experts have described how the country and its organizations are preparing for growing digital threats.

AI lowers the barrier to attacks

The cyberthreat landscape has changed markedly over the past year. Launching an attack no longer demands advanced hacking skills, as artificial intelligence is increasingly used to find security flaws and write malicious software. Tanel Tammet, professor of computer science at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), said AI can help attackers work about ten times faster and more effectively than a human, so the number of people able to mount successful attacks has risen sharply. In his view, cybersecurity is at a fairly critical point.

Criminals exploit both software vulnerabilities and human error, with phishing emails and weak passwords among the most common routes in.

Hospitals' experience

Kristjan Hinn, head of information security at North Estonia Medical Center (PERH), said the hospital sees hundreds of thousands of attempted attacks monthly, most blocked by automated systems. Analysts investigate 200 to 300 incidents each month, about 10 percent of which require action by the hospital. Care could continue with pen and paper, he said, but efficiency would drop considerably.

In France this week, hackers accessed a cold storage facility holding blood samples and plasma, where the temperature rose from minus 30 to 110 degrees Celsius. PERH reviewed its own systems afterwards, but Hinn considers such an incident highly unlikely in Estonian hospitals, as refrigerator cables are not kept plugged in permanently.

State preparedness

Mai Kraft, head of the cybersecurity center at the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA), said full protection is impossible, so quick recovery matters. Responsibility is shared between the state and businesses.

Erkki Tori, coordination director at the Government Office, said agencies and companies have defined crisis tasks they must be able to carry out under any circumstances. The government recommends that people be prepared to manage on their own for at least a week during a crisis.