On the other hand the number of high priority incidents has declined significantly over the same period, according to the RIA.

Moreover an increased overall number of incidents detected does not necessarily mean a rise in the number of incidents so much as an improvement in detection.

"The number of incidents rising does not automatically mean that threats are increasing, but rather that the capacity of RIA's security incident management department (CERT-EE) to detect problems as well as report incidents has improved,'' Uku Sarekanno, head of RIA's cyber security service, said.

'' At the same time, use of the internet, data volumes and risks have grown," he went on.

According to Mr. Sarekanno, most of the incidents are related to malware with the goal of usually stealing information, but a growing trend is taking over devices in order to mine cryptocurrency, unbeknownst to a user.

Another growing trend is scam emails, which seem to have been written by company heads and which order employees to make payments to bank accounts.

"This year CERT* is focussing on the preventive detection of administration errors, because often the most critical incidents are connected to incompetent administration," Sarekanno said.

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* CERT organizations exist around the world, and they work closely together, sharing information about information security incidents and reporting security threats.