NOVE carried out a legal analysis of the IT and cybersecurity sector commissioned by the Estonian Information and Communication Technology Centre (Estonian IT Centre, RIT), which resulted in finding the answers to fundamental questions concerning the activities and competences of the RIT. As important nodes, the analysis addressed issues related to the legal basis and the scope of competences of the RIT as a central public sector ICT service provider, as well as the cybersecurity and data protection obligations of the RIT. The nature of the legal relationship between the RIT and the client institutions and the resulting division of rights, obligations and responsibilities was also examined.
According to the head of the analysis team, Sten Tikerpe, it is welcomed that state institutions, especially in the IT field, in recent years have started to evaluate their services and processes more systematically, instead of rushing through them “RIT is still a very new state institution, but it is undoubtedly already a key institution for the functioning of the Estonian digital state. As ordinary citizens, we do not realise that it is to a large extent on the activities and services of the RIT that the functioning and user experience of our digital state and e-services actually directly depends. It is good to see that the RIT recognises this responsibility by contributing in every way to the continuity of its services, including by ensuring that they are legally watertight and properly implemented.”
In order to further improve the efficiency of RIT services, the results of the analysis included proposals for both regulatory improvements and policy decisions.
The team included Sten Tikerpe, Mari Past and Veiko Vaske.
*The Estonian IT Centre (RIT) is part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The Estonian IT Centre keeps the digital government and provides the public sector of the Republic of Estonia with computer workstation, basic server infrastructure and other central services.
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