Opinion: Backlash over storm response and cyberattack often disproportionate
In a Delfi opinion piece, Jānis Bergs argues that public demands for officials to resign after a recent storm and a CSDD data breach are excessive. He contrasts this with Ukraine, where comparable crises occur weekly without such calls.
In an opinion column published by Delfi, author Jānis Bergs examines public reaction to two recent crisis situations in Latvia — a powerful storm and a data breach at the state Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD).
The author notes that various services responded quickly after the storm — within hours, workers were visible on Riga's streets, most fallen trees were removed, and hazardous areas were cordoned off. Despite this, public calls emerged for officials to be replaced, citing a shortage of generators at communication towers and shortcomings in the emergency notification system.
A comparison with Ukraine
Bergs asks readers to imagine a similar situation in Ukraine, where comparable "storms" — in the form of Russian missiles, bombs and drones — occur weekly for more than four years, regardless of season or time of day, destroying buildings, critical infrastructure and costing lives. He questions whether, under such conditions, anyone would demand a service chief's resignation after a single drone was not shot down.
The CSDD incident
The author applies similar reasoning to the recent CSDD security breach, in which hackers accessed a large volume of personal data. While acknowledging the seriousness of the incident, Bergs questions whether the appropriate response is the simultaneous resignation of the company's entire supervisory and management boards. He points out that large US companies also regularly suffer data theft, yet this rarely results in the resignation of their entire leadership.
Bergs concludes that officials should step down when they have personally broken the law, lied, or shown clear incompetence, but argues that the cases described do not meet that threshold.
