SLOVAK REPUBLIC CYBER READINESS AT A GLANCE Melissa Hathaway, Francesca Spidalieri and Anushka Kaushik April 2019 AC INST M IT O U T B T O E P F O G S E R I P D O U LICY ST Copyright © 2019, Cyber Readiness Index 2.0, All rights reserved. Published by Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Potomac Institute for Policy Studies 901 N. Stuart St, Suite 1200 Arlington, VA 22203 www.potomacinstitute.org Telephone: 703.525.0770; Fax: 703.525.0299 Email: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @CyberReadyIndex Cover Art by Alex Taliesen. Acknowledgements The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the authors would like to thank Alex Taliesen for cover art and Sherry Loveless for editorial and design work. SLOVAK REPUBLIC CYBER READINESS AT A GLANCE TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . 2 1 . NATIONAL STRATEGY . .9 . 2 . INCIDENT RESPONSE . 16 . 3 . E-CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT . 21. 4 . INFORMATION SHARING . 24 . 5 . INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT . 26 6 . DIPLOMACY AND TRADE . 30 . 7 . DEFENSE AND CRISIS RESPONSE . 33 CRI 2 .0 BOTTOM LINE . .36 . ENDNOTES . 37. ABOUT THE AUTHORS . 47 . SLOVAK REPUBLIC CYBER READINESS AT A GLANCE Country Population 5,440 million Population Growth 0 .17% GDP at market prices (current $US) $95,769 billion (ranked 64th in 2017) GDP Growth 3 .4% Year Internet Introduced 1992 National Cyber Security Strategy 2008, 2015 Internet Domain(s) .cs and .sk Internet users per 100 users 81 .6 Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 users 25 .8 Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 users 130 .7 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development and Connectivity Standing International Telecommunications World Economic Forum’s Union (ITU) 46 Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 47 ICT Development Index (IDI) Sources: World Bank (2017), ITU (2017), and NRI (2016). © 2019 Cyber Readiness Index 2.0, all rights reserved. 1 INTRODUCTION In 1918 – after World War I and a long history Telecommunications in Bratislava.1 However, of conflicts and occupations by neighbors, most central planners still did not consider including Austria, Hungary, and Germany telecom services to be a genuine form of – Czechoslovakia became an independent production and did not invest in the under- country. Czechoslovakia was comprised of lying communication infrastructure.2 Instead, the Czechs and the Slovaks, two distinct com- investment was targeted at primary forms munities with their respective languages, of production, such as industrial enterprises. religions, cultures, and economic sources Telephone services served as a stable source of income/growth. During World War II, of revenue that was channeled to help fund Czechoslovakia suffered significant loss of the more valued entities contributing to the life and infrastructural damage until the Soviet country’s economic wellbeing. In particular, Army liberated them in 1945. In 1946, the the telephone service was used to subsi- country held national elections that ceded dize postal services, which operated at a power to the Czech’s leading political party. loss. Telephone tariffs were not related to Simultaneously, Czechoslovakia became a the cost of providing service. Charges for client state of the Soviet Union. For the next domestic calls were fairly low and charges four decades, they were under a one-party for international calls were extremely high. system and the influence of the Soviet Union The central government in power at that time as part of the Warsaw Pact. also imposed substantial social restrictions and actively worked to make communication The Czech side of the country was highly among people difficult in order to promote industrialized (e.g., automotive, machin- political stability and quell the ability to con- ery, metallurgy, textiles, etc.) and provided spire against the Communist Party. much of the technical talent and educational capacity to the region, including three main Therefore, the first Internet pioneers in the universities focused on math, science, and country had to overcome several operational, engineering. Whereas on the Slovak side of technical, political, and social limitations. In the country, the main sectors of the economy 1976, Czechoslovakia sponsored a state project, were agriculture and mining of raw materials called “Computer Network,” to enable the (e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron, and salt). transfer of information from one computer to another – effectively, trying to implement an During the communist period, Czechoslo- ARPANET (the experimental computer net- vakia’s telecommunications network was work that became the basis for the Internet). neglected. By 1960, the Soviets had cen- A group of researchers at the Institute of tralized the postal, telecommunication, and Applied Cybernetics (UAK) in Bratislava began transport bodies into a single Ministry of working on a number of related initiatives.3 Transport and Communications. The merger By 1986, the first intra-network became oper- was dysfunctional. In 1969, two ministries ational using 16-bit mini computers4 sold by were set up – the Ministry of Post Offices Digital Equipment Corporation. UAK was and Telecommunications in Prague and able to transfer data between three nodes the Ministry of Transport, Post Offices and in Bratislava and one in the city of Prague. © 2019 Cyber Readiness Index 2.0, all rights reserved. 2 Later, researchers at UAK started experi- similar node. In 1990, UAK transitioned its menting with email services that used the node to the Comenius University in Bratislava Unix to Unix Copy (UUCP) protocol, but and became part of the European computer the network still had both operational and network (EUnet). Export restrictions on wide technical limitations. At that time, bandwidth area network (WAN) products were gradu- was still limited (only 10 telephone lines ally reduced, allowing the existing nodes in per every 100 people). This network was Bratislava and Prague to be connected to principally used for research and did not international networks.8 In the early 1990s, allow communication between individuals nearly every European country had a tele- or businesses.5 communications monopoly and in Czecho- slovakia it was SPT Praha (Sprava post a In November 1989, a series of demonstrations telekomunikaci Praha) under the Ministry of across the country, known by the Czechs as Posts and Telecommunications. The mar- the Velvet Revolution and by the Slovaks ket was still closed to other commercial and as the Gentle Revolution,6 showed peo- non-commercial telecommunications services. ple’s desire to end the one-party rule and But the European Community’s (EC) industrial embrace a market economy. Eventually, policy advocated for the diversification of the this led to the election of Czechoslovakia’s market from U.S.-dominated products and first multi-party government in June 1990. services and promoted the development of next-generation European network technol- During the period between 1989 and the ogies and protocols as well as incubating peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia into national “research” network operators (e.g., two independent countries in 1993, the SURFnet and DFN). adoption of ICTs and the development of commercial networks and email commu- Several academic institutions in Czecho- nication started increasing. In 1989, UAK slovakia started receiving financial support had established one of the primary Internet and technical know-how from foreign part- nodes (Iac.cs) using BITNET (a computer ners. This was facilitated by the EU-funded network of universities, colleges, and other project, Trans-European Mobility Scheme academic institutions that was a predeces- for University Studies (TEMPUS), launched sor to the Internet) to enable email com- in 1991 with the goal of providing connec- munications.7 The University of Chemical tions between universities in the region. The Technology in Prague had established a project involved the sharing of expertise with universities in the hill town of Banska Bystrica in Central Slovakia and partners like UNI-C Lyngby in Denmark, the National Institute for In 1989, the Institute of Nuclear and High-Energy Physics (NIKHEF) Applied Cybernetics (UAK) in in Amsterdam, the National Technical Uni- Bratislava established one of versity in Athens, and the National Science Slovakia’s first Internet nodes. Foundation (NSF) in Washington D.C. The NSF, in particular, promoted connectivity among academic institutions to ARPANET. © 2019 Cyber Readiness Index 2.0, all rights reserved. 3 In 1991, the Slovak Academic Network (SANET) The second challenge was supporting additional was established to formalize the coopera- projects to build networks in each country. tion among experts and scientists from UAK Despite sharing the same Internet history and EUnet, as well as users of those services and network development process up to that and representatives from a host of technical point, the Czech Republic was more success- universities in Bratislava, Zilina, and Banska ful in building on the work of its academics Bystrica. Their main goal was to create and and convincing its Ministry of Education to operate a backbone network for the Slovak allocate funding through large-scale govern- academic community, support its scientific, ment projects. Slovakia was much slower in technical, and organizational needs, and adopt implementing similar Internet connectivity international standards and rules consistent projects and less successful in obtaining gov- with the EC industrial policy goals. SANET ernment funds right