Noorma told Wednesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" about the situation in cyberspace.

The avalanche of attacks from Russia is very intense. "The bad actors think they can attack as much as they can, limited only by how well countries can defend themselves and hold the criminals accountable," he told the show.

"The West constantly feels how hacker groups supported by the Russian authorities are carrying out attacks against us. By supporting hacker groups, the state can more easily create confusion. Then the state is not directly connected. Creating chaos has been a constant for Russia — their goal is to achieve geopolitical and cognitive effects so that people in democratic countries begin to doubt their values and governments. Even influencing presidential elections is of interest to the hackers," he explained.

"Quite often, Russian hackers also have financial motives — the proceeds are divided among state agencies," Noorma explained.

The director said there is no sign that attacks on Estonia will increase as Victory Day (May 9) approaches.

Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine have also caused global economic damage.

"For example, the attack against the Viasat system at the start of the war, which affected Germany's energy sector — although that was probably an indirect effect rather than the goal," Noorma said.

In wartime, the primary targets are military systems to gain direct information about what is happening on the battlefield from the Ukrainian perspective.

"That's the most attractive target, but it's also professionally protected. They also try to infiltrate social media messaging apps like Signal to eavesdrop on communications," he said.

Every day services could also be targeted, the director said, such as the population registry, which could prevent marriages from being registered.

He also spoke about other countries where states support cyberattacks.

"China does not engage in public, visible cybercrime like Russia, nor in banditry like North Korea, but they have their own interests, such as gathering information about potential adversaries. And even our big friends will not deny that," Noorma said.

By 2025, the estimated damage from cyberattacks will reach $10 trillion. This is larger than the drug trade and greater than the gross domestic product of most countries.

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