Handbook: Upgrading National Cyber Resilience

Over the past 20 years, cybersecurity has grown to occupy a major part of our work at the e-Governance Academy. We have helped more than 40 countries assess their national readiness to prevent and respond to cyber threats, establish cybersecurity governance and risk management mechanisms, draft the relevant legislation, strengthen incident prevention and response capacities, or take stock of best practices in cybersecurity awareness raising. The National Cybersecurity Index (NCSI) developed and managed by the e-Governance Academy has since 2016 served as a key tool to support these activities and to help countries develop their cybersecurity capacities.

This publication presents the outcome of the NCSI methodology update conducted during 2021–2022 and describes how the NCSI has developed through the years. Furthermore, following the effort of our 2020 National Cyber Security in Practice handbook to give national policymakers, legislative experts, and others responsible for securing the digital environment an overview of the key elements that underpin the national cybersecurity architecture, this publication takes a closer look at additional areas of national cybersecurity: strategic leadership, global engagements, a stronger legal framework for cyber resilience, and crisis preparedness.

The e-Governance Academy wishes to thank Henrik Beckvard, Kadri Kaska, Hannes Krause, Merle Maigre, Anna-Maria Osula, Radu Serrano, and Martin Švéda for contributing their insights, and the number of experts who have been involved in developing the NCSI, including Markko Künnapu, Helar Laasik, Epp Maaten, Piret Pernik, Raul Rikk, Radu Serrano, and Hauke Schulz.

We are grateful to the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their long-time support for the development of the NCSI and the expansion of the National Cyber Security in Practice handbook.