RESILIENCE BUILDING AGAINST CYBER INSECURITIES IN THE BALTICS

The Global Risk Report of the World Economic Forum has been defining cyber insecurity as one of the severe global risks since 2023. The Global Risk Report 2024 ranked cyber insecurity as the eight global risk by severity over a ten-years-period. The peaceful environment the cyberspace had provided for almost two decades ended with the release of the Morris Worm, the first harmful malware, in 1988. Since then cyber threats and cyberattacks have been posing serious dangers to national security. The cyber-attacks on Estonia in 2007 owing to the Bronze Soldier event are considered as an important milestone in cybersecurity studies. These were followed by the cyber-attacks on Georgia in 2008 and on Iran in 2010, which created a serious need for cyber policies, actions, strategies and norms at national and international level like the efforts of the UN, NATO and OECD to overcome the unwanted results of the cyber domain. This study will deal with the Baltic states’ cyber capabilities, cyber capacity building, security concerns and cybersecurity challenges from the perspective of small states’ security considering the latest developments in Eastern Europe since 2022, the fast advancements in information technology and artificial intelligence. The study will be a desk research focusing on the national strategies, policies and action plans of the Baltic states to fight with the insecurities of cyberspace by using case study analysis as a research method. This study aims to shed light on the vulnerabilities and resilience of the Baltic states facing with cyber insecurities. The scholarship will contribute into Baltic and cyber security studies.