digital transformation adviser at the e-estonia briefing centre
July 28, 2022
The Estonian e-residents community recently became the 2nd largest city in Estonia – after the capital, Tallinn, with 438,341 habitants, the number of e-residents has risen to 93,450 and is followed by university town Tartu with 91,407 residents. This positively-minded community towards Estonia is an extension of our digital state across borders, representing e-residents from over 160 countries.
A notable Estonian linguist, also known as the “king of Estonian folklore,” Jakob Hurt once said that if we can’t become big, we must become big in spirit. I assume he would approve of seeing Estonia being expanded worldwide by the e-residents, carrying our tech-savvy mindset and love for safe, secure, and convenient electronic identity and services.
At the beginning of June, an Estonian e-resident, Dominik Panosch, set a world record in establishing a company online. It took him 15 minutes. I had the pleasure of hosting Dominik and his colleagues in the e-Estonia Briefing Centre recently, where he told me he aimed to do it in around 10 minutes. Alas, troubles with wifi on the premise prevented him from completing that time goal.
Dominik’s co-founders, fellow e-residents, shared the advantages of operating a fully remote (Germany-based) business using Estonian government-issued electronic identification. “From Madeira Island, I was able to digitally sign a resignation form to step down as an active board member,” shares Christoph Huebner, also a founding member of the Estonian e-Residents International Chamber Association (EERICA).
As a spokesperson for e-Estonia, I talk about the wonders of the Estonian digital society. But as a citizen of the same country, my speeches are backed by my experience consuming various online services. From declaring taxes, e-prescriptions, educational certificates, digital signatures, encrypted file-sharing, and many more, I can securely share my experience consuming smooth, convenient public services.
After entering the labor market over ten years ago, I have never signed a work contract by hand. It makes me genuinely happy to hear how much e-residents benefit from the same seamless electronic environment that Estonian citizens and residents use.
Speakers’ Corner is an article series where the e-Estonia Digital Transformation advisers talk about the digital society and their personal experiences related to using public e-services.
Latin America is an alluring market for Estonian information technologies companies, and Mexico, with its federated government and population of 129 million, represents as much of a challenge as an opportunity.
Earlier this year Roksnet, a Tallinn-headquartered company devoted to building digital ecosystems, partnered with Querétaro, a federal state in central Mexico with a population of 2.4 million, to explore embedding Estonia’s X-Road protocol into its digital agenda.
According to Carlos Vargas, Roksnet’s Latin American director, the dialogue with Querétaro began in the spring. By the first week of June, X-Road, the secure data exchange that serves as the backbone for Estonia’s digital ecosystem, had already gone live in the Mexican state.
Paying attention to the Latin American market
“For the last couple of years, we have been paying attention to the Latin American market,” commented Vargas. Roksnet’s mission is to improve the public sector as best as possible via interoperability and digital transformation while using Estonia’s experience as a benchmark.
The company has similar partnerships in place from the Cayman Islands to Kyrgyzstan.
“It’s also important to know the Estonian experience deep enough to acknowledge the mistakes made and teach other countries how to avoid them in their digital transformation process,” Vargas added.
An e-strategy game
Regarding Latin America, Vargas said some unique factors are at play in trying to “tropicalize some of the Estonian digital government components.” These include the size of the countries’ populations, differences in political organization, and the extent of administration. As the governments of Latin American countries can be federated, meaning that different political entities comprise the overall administration, he said it can be difficult to align a digital project at a state level.
“Therefore, another perspective is needed on how to adapt the technology and make it work in pieces,” said Vargas. “It’s more like an e-strategy game.”
Roksnet
Roksnet was founded by Riho Oks in 2016 to export Estonian digital solutions based on the X-Road to other users worldwide. Oks played a role in the development of the X-Road as an advisor for RIA, the Estonian System Authority, where he was an advisor for 13 years. The company’s services include a maturity level assessment by its team of experts, assistance in setting up public services, and advice on maintaining, administering, and directing the new digital ecosystem.
According to Vargas, representatives from Querétaro reached out to the e-Estonia Briefing Centre for assistance. The briefing center played a pivotal role in putting them in touch with Roksnet, which seemed a good fit for the undertaking given its prior experience in Latin America with clients in Colombia; Vargas said that his company “clicked perfectly” with its new Mexican client, which showed interest in Roksnet’s ability to export knowledge around X-Road. “With work from both sides, we have managed to integrate our expertise with their plans,” he said.
Alessio Hagen, the director of digital cities for Dell Technologies in Latin America, has been working on the Digital Querétaro project. He said the Mexican state aims to consolidate its government databases and services. “Rather than starting from scratch and trying to replicate what has been done in other countries, we decided to call e-Estonia and learn from them to make this happen,” Hagen said.
The Digital Querétaro
The Digital Querétaro project has multiple pillars of which the X-Road serves as a core platform. One is to transfer its government resources and services and make them interoperable and accessible via a single platform. The project also aims to have an application allowing citizens to interact with the new environment.
Digital Querétaro also aims to introduce e-identity; the government passed a law allowing it to do so. Not only will this enable citizens to access state services, but it will also be part of other pillars focused on business and society, allowing users to open and manage their businesses online. “We will give small- and medium-sized businesses access to a new platform, where everyone can open a new company in 24 hours,” said Hagen.
Improving connectivity among various social groups, from the elderly to elementary school students, is another part of the Digital Querétaro project. According to Hagen, Roksnet assists with the effort’s X-Road and e-identity aspects.
Roksnet’s Vargas underscored that e-identity is a cornerstone of any digital ecosystem. “Communication, identification of the receiver and transmitter, and knowing what to share is the base for social interaction,” Vargas said. “Digital and information systems have the same requirements for becoming an ecosystem,” he said, “We help governments achieve that.”
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Estonian Information System Authority provided the know-how and key personnel for the EU’s competence centre for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC4) to combat rising cyber threats. The centre, located in the Dominican Republic, is the first of its kind and an essential step toward the EU’s leading role in global cyber security.
Cyber-attacks can cripple entire countries
Besides boasting of this unique centre of cyber defence, Latin America also provides examples of what is at stake in cyberspace. This year, Costa Rica was forced to declare a state of emergency after crippling ransomware attacks against its government by the Russian-speaking Conti gang. This was the first time a country declared a state of emergency due to cyber-attacks.
The attack brought Costa Rica’s government almost to a halt. Taxes, pensions, customs, and other operations were forced to use paper documents. While Costa Rica’s example is perhaps the most visible, cyber-attacks by criminal gangs and hostile countries are frequent around the globe.
The example of Costa Rica indicates the scope of what is at stake. The European Union has pledged to support the digital security of its partner countries in its Cybersecurity Strategy and its digital diplomacy in general.
Practical output for a network of experts
LAC4, which opened in May 2022, is the latest practical output in the field, and it does not stand alone. The centre grew out of a more comprehensive CyberNet project of the EU. The project, also led by the Estonian Information System Authority, established a network of more than 240 top minds in the global cyber security community.
“Finding suitable experts is a sensitive task,” says Liina Areng, a former Estonian cyber diplomat at NATO and currently CyberNet regional program lead in LAC4. “CyberNet functions like a club. To join our ranks, an applicant should have at least two references known to us. While many of our experts are Estonian, we have recognized that expertise should be conveyed in the native language. Therefore, we have hired globally.”
Besides providing expertise, CyberNet also coordinates the EU’s numerous digital and cyber development aid projects. On a broader level, it functions as a cyber capacity-building tool for the EU Service for Foreign Policy Instruments to deliver training activities globally. LAC4 is the first physical centre for training and expertise, providing an output for the CyberNet network of experts.
LAC4 educates and creates trust
LAC4 offers expertise and training for Latin American governments and businesses and functions as a regional hub. The first event it hosted was a conference for telecom operators on the topic of net security. Now, LAC4 is consulting countries like Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Guyana on how to develop cyber threat risk assessments and crisis management plans. Also, a training cycle started in January on how to prepare and run cyber drills. Molded after similar events in Estonia, LAC4’s first cyber security drill will take place in November with the involvement of 9 Caribbean countries.
“Although our primary focus this year is on Caribbean countries, we are encouraging cooperation between countries all across the LAC region,” says Ms. Areng. “It may be a digital world, but to create trust, people in different administrations need to meet face-to-face. Only with these personal connections can people better combat cross-border incidents. This is one of the aims of the events we are organising.”
Additionally, LAC4 is empowering countries to act as sub-regional hubs themselves. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Costa Rica are already stepping up to these roles.
Estonian reputation opens doors
According to Ms. Areng, Latin America is a dynamic region of the world, and the EU is paying keen attention to it. The competition for “hearts and minds” is intense since the US, China, Israel, Korea, and other countries aim to provide their expertise.
“While the EU may be sometimes unfathomable in Latin America, Estonia is a good “trademark” for creating awareness of the EU and cyber topics,” says Ms. Areng. “Being such a tiny country, we have no global political ambition. Therefore, simply our reputation helps to open many doors.”
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