Cybersecurity is a mess, but President Obama can learn a few things from Estonia – and Eugene Kaspersky

Eugene Kaspersky, who runs the Kaspersky Lab security group, cautioned that cybercrime has evolved to rival the sophistication of states. “A few years ago, there was criminal malware, and state-sponsored malware, and the difference [was] like a car and a space shuttle. Now, many criminals, unfortunately, the evolution in cybercrime is such that they are very professional.”

Governments are still struggling to come up with effective ways to respond to threats posed by cyberattacks and cyberespionage. They would be well advised to look toward Estonia for advice on how to do so. After a 2007 attack, Estonia overhauled its approach to cyberdefense, introducing a systematic chain-of-command that ensures a swift reaction to future attacks. In 2009, the country passed an Emergency Act which mandates that all vital services must retain the majority of their capacity in the event that they are disconnected from the Internet. So while nations like Denmark and Australia are scrambling to develop offensive cyber capabilities, the centralizing reforms in Singapore and Estonia may actually be a simpler, more effective way of combatting cyberthreats.