THE LAND OF I KNOW

NOT WHAT AND I KNOW

NOT WHERE

Tallinn, Estonia

Four days before the official voting day of its general election in the
spring of 2007, the tiny Baltic country of Estonia, with a population
of just 1.25 million, offered its citizens a world first: the opportunity
to cast their ballots in a parliamentary election without getting up from
their PC. If the experiment worked, the ultimate aim would be to
instigate a full 'virtual election' four years later in 2011.

Much was at stake if Estonia were to make this significant leap
towards a digital future - not only did the systems have to work, but
they had to be secure from outside attack as well. A year earlier Estonia
had officially inaugurated its Computer Emergency Response Team
(CERT), whose main job was to react to any breaches (whether acci-
dental or malicious) in the Internet domain that bears the country's
suffix: .ee. That involves constantly monitoring the flow of Internet
traffic in, around and out of the country for any abnormal patterns.

The man responsible for the entire country's computer security is
the quietly spoken Hillar Aarelaid, sporting the look of someone who
has only recently got out of bed, and that unwillingly. He may appear
distracted, but Aarelaid has a single-mindedness that saw him rise
through the ranks of Estonia's police force, where he started as a simple
traffic cop in the sticks. 'But I loved computers, so first I got a transfer
here to Tallinn and eventually I was appointed Chief Information Officer
for law enforcement throughout the country.' Just as well - he definitely
looks like a geek. He definitely does not look like a cop (except, at a
pinch, an undercover narcotics officer from the 1980s), so perhaps it