The grant is part of a pilot project which falls under the EU's Digital Europe program, aiming to increase the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises to cope with cyber-attacks and prevent the economic damage they cause.

Industrial companies, wholesale and retail traders, construction companies, transport and storage companies as well as information and communication companies are all eligible to apply for support.

"Cyber-attacks can cause damage to all businesses, regardless of their size. These attacks can disrupt production for industrial companies or lead to financial losses following instances of billing fraud. We want to use this support to help companies make their IT infrastructure more secure," said Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Kristjan Järvan (Isamaa).

"In some cases, this means migrating to secure cloud services. In others it means training staff and in or rebuilding networks. This is why the beneficiary must first carry out a cyber security mapping exercise. The resulting roadmap is akin to a tailor-made solution for raising the level of cyber security in a particular company," Järvan added.

Lauri Tankler, head of the RIA's research and coordination department, said there has already been one extremely serious cyber-attack this year, which had caused more than €100,000 in damage to Estonian businesses.

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