Several Estonian government services will no longer accept emails sent directly from Russian servers or from addresses ending in .ru, as the country tightens cybersecurity measures amid a rise in attacks linked to Russia.
The emails concerned will instead be subjected to additional checks before they are received, Estonia’s Minister of Digital Affairs and Justice, Liisa-Ly Pakosta, announced on Monday.
Estonia, an EU and NATO Member State that shares a border with Russia, said the move was part of broader efforts to strengthen its cyber defences.
“Since 2022, the number of cyberattacks against Estonia has increased exponentially,” Pakosta told Estonian public broadcaster ERR.
She added that “a large part” of those attacks could be linked to Russia.
Pakosta said the new restrictions were only one of a number of steps the government is taking to improve cybersecurity.
Estonia is widely regarded as a European pioneer in digitalisation.
