INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
By News from Elsewhereas found by TheIndianSubcontinent MonitoringImage copyrightToomas Tuul/Focus/Getty ImagesImage caption
Estonia has one of the world's most advanced digital social systems
Estonia's advanced digital society has seen off
hacking attempts in the past, but recently had to concede defeat - albeit briefly - to a rat attack.The country's online services allow
citizens to conduct most of their business at the click of a button, from voting to filing tax returns, and have prompted the World Bank to
include "e-Estonia" among the few states close to becoming a truly digital society.But when the State Information System Agency (RIA)
investigated a malfunctioning underground cable that had taken down the eesti.ee digital services portal, they discovered that it it had
been damaged by rats, the Postimees newspaper reported.The disruption made it impossible to issue medical prescriptions online and also
affected the Eesti Loto state lottery.A 300-metre stretch of cable in Harju County around the capital Tallinn was repaired overnight without
the usual public notification, "before it caused any more damage", RIA's networks chief Kaido Plovits posted on the eesti.ee Facebook page
You may also be interested in:The network was back up and running within a few hours, and there had not been disruption to ID services, but
the incident brought back unhappy memories of the coordinated cyber attack on Estonia's digital society in 2007, following a diplomatic row
with Russia.The experience has since prompted Estonia to become one of the world's leaders in cyber security
Estonia is gradually building parallel data connections to provide resilience for its digital society, but Mr Plovits acknowledges that the
network is not yet fully protected against the plans of rats and men
Image copyrighteesti.eeImage caption
The damage was repaired overnight
Reporting by Alistair Coleman and
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