MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ten nations have come together to expose sensitive details about Russian hacking campaigns against Ukraine and its allies since 2020. For one of those nations, the Baltic country of Estonia, it is a milestone. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin has this report.
JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: Almost 20 years ago, the small European nation of Estonia went offline. The country was hit by a massive cyberattack launched by its adversarial neighbor, Russia. Since then, Estonia has advanced rapidly in the technological sector. They helped to launch successful tech startups like Skype and made nearly all government services, including voting, digital. Now, for the first time, the Estonian government has independently investigated and attributed cyberattacks against its government agencies to individual Russian military hackers. Estonia joined nine other nations, including the United States, in exposing and condemning Russia's tactics.
TANEL SEPP: I think this is one of the most remarkable achievements right now.
MCLAUGHLIN: That's Tanel Sepp, Estonia's ambassador at large for cyber diplomacy. Sepp is proud Estonia joined the United States and others to point fingers at Russia, particularly for its destructive attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure ahead of the full-scale invasion. But it's more than that. Estonian investigators independently unmasked one Russian individual who wasn't on the U.S. Department of Justice's list of alleged hackers. The goal is to hold these individuals accountable, says Sepp.
SEPP: If we have evidence of some wrongdoings, we should not withhold that information. We should really call out if somebody's doing something wrong.
MCLAUGHLIN: Estonia was quick to share in 2020 that three government ministries had been breached. The latest revelations help shed more light on what happened, who was behind it and what information might have been stolen. That transparency is vital to maintaining Estonian citizens' trust, Sepp says.
SEPP: We need to be honest to our citizens first. If something is wrong, we then need to fix it.
MCLAUGHLIN: And in the future, Estonia hopes to join its allies in helping Ukraine hold Russia accountable for its wartime crimes, cyber or otherwise, says Sepp. All this new documentation could help add evidence to ongoing legal cases against Russian hackers, including at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
