Estonia, The Digital Republic

This article details life in the digital nation of Estonia. E-Estonia is an ambitious process to put the processes of government all online. Citizens have personal information submitted online that will only ever need to be inputted once. If they need to apply for a loan, for example, the system will have all their information and a loan can be issued quickly and easily. The data is not centrally stored in order to avoid major breaches of information. The advancements described in this article seem rather wonderful. For example, registering a car would no longer require a lengthy trip to the DMV, but simply entering a few details online. Even voting can be done online and at home. However, problems arise when there are no paper originals for resolving conflicts if errors are reported. Additionally, is a breach happens, the average time until discovery is 205 days. There are a lot of ideals being sought in this mission to put a government online as well as disadvantages. My biggest take away from this article is that any move to put government processes online will bring many cybersecurity concerns.