ESTONIAN men might while away their long winter evenings occupied by the national pastime of going to a sauna and beating each other with birch branches, but when in public they are calm, softly spoken and undemonstrative. In fact the Estonian capital Tallinn gives every impression of being amongst the most stable and safest cities on earth. With a population of just 400,000 it’s little more than a town. Well-behaved children walk alone to school, satchels on their backs, from as young as five or six years old. The wide streets, lined by trees and parks, carry light traffic. Vehicles and pedestrians alike obey the rules. The only people jaywalking in Tallinn are the foreigners.

But beneath the surface there is anxiety. Perched on the edge of Europe and with a standing army of just 6,000, Estonians know they are vulnerable. They look at what happened in Ukraine and wonder, will we be next? Estonia has a history of occupation by Germans, Russians, Swedes and Poles. Should Moscow ever decide to gobble up the Baltic States once more, then Russia’s 800,000 troops could make light work of Estonia’s defences.

Pakistan may long for the day when there will be no US military presence in its region: but Estonia craves American soldiers. By joining both the European Union and Nato, Estonia has done everything it can to look West not East. And at its military base in Tapa the fruits of that policy are on display. Nato is set to deploy 1,000 troops in Estonia and the first have already arrived.

“Russian activity in Eastern Europe has been increased and as a result we are here to assure Estonia and the Baltics that Nato is fully committed to the defence of Nato countries,” said Captain Don Duong. Dressed in full combat gear, he spoke in the midst of a training exercise in which US soldiers defended their position from approaching enemy forces. One of the Javelin anti-tank missiles used by the US troops costs $250,000 each time it is fired. They say they only fire it in training exercises if the missile is close to its expiry date.

But Nato’s hard power is just one part of the story. Estonia is also preparing to defend another front — in cyberspace.

It all dates back to April 2007 when the Estonian authorities moved a statue of a Soviet-era soldier from a park in central Tallinn to a rather more obscure military graveyard in the suburbs. Estonia has a substantial Russian-speaking minority and there were two days of rioting opposing the move. But then something else happened: Estonia was subjected to a massive cyber attack that they traced back to Russia.

The parliament’s email server was shut down. A fake letter from the prime minister in which he supposedly apologised for moving the statue circulated online. The websites of several newspapers and the biggest bank were brought down. As a highly digitised society, Estonia was especially vulnerable. Estonia’s then defence minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, suddenly found himself having to think about bots not boots.

“If banks are down for hours or if news is not available over the internet, you feel scared. You don’t now who is in command,” said Aaviksoo. “It was perceived as a national security threat by many people — including the government.”

To restore digital order Estonia had to close off most of its international online connections. Ever since the 2007 cyber attack, the country has taken a lead in preparing the world for cyber conflict. Tallinn is home to Nato’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence — the first and only centre of its kind. And today Estonia attracts experts from all over the world to discuss cyber warfare. The country even has a volunteer national guard unit which is tasked with swinging into action in the event of a cyber conflict. The idea is to mobilise private sector expertise to defend against an attack.

In many post-Soviet societies, former political exiles were rejected by voters who preferred leaders who had suffered Soviet communism alongside them. But Estonia’s bow tie wearing President Toomas Ilves (his parents fled the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1944) overcame that handicap and is now nearing the end of his second term. And he is warning the world that digital threats are real.

“Our vulnerabilities will become greater and greater,” said President Ilves. While many people worry about privacy issues, he focuses on data integrity. In increasingly digitised societies, governments and even professionals such as doctors will rely in information stored online. “I am worried about people changing data,” the president said. “I may not like it if someone knows my blood type. But I am really in trouble of someone changes the records of what my blood type is.”

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016