Cyber Security in Young Democracies

Abstract

Totalitarian past is not the only tie bringing together Lithuania and the Czech Republic nowadays. Both countries are young democracies that underwent dynamic social, legal and political changes during the 90s to ensure transition toward becoming modern democratic states. Now, both countries are members of the European Union and NATO and they share common interest of the small European countries. However, the totalitarian past remains present and it has certain influence on recent issues arising from the current information society. Totalitarian regimes in both countries left some of the political approaches twisted beyond recognition and adversely affected the very core of the society and ways it approaches itself and the others. The author of the paper is aiming to provide the comparison of Lithuania and the Czech Republic mainly within the field of the cybernetic security, but with certain overlaps to general theory of the information society and the continental legal tradition of distributive rights. In both countries, the cybernetic security presents a new and interesting challenge, because both countries can be perceived as rookies within this particular field. In the first and the second parts, the author describes the very essence of the information society and the informational self-determination as the core principle arising from the information society. Then, in the third part, the author describes reminiscences of the totalitarian past, which could be understood mainly as a general opposition towards limitations of distributive rights, because the means of cyber security are vastly understood as the government trying to regulate the Internet. This is a rather sensitive topic, due to the totalitarian past of both countries. In the fourth part, the author describes the current stateof- art of the cyber security, mainly approaching the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany as countries well-established within the field of cyber security. Estonia, as another small state, is also taken into consideration, providing their very mature legislation and approach toward the cyber security that may act as a role model for Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Part of the paper is also reserved for the comparison between approaches of Lithuania and the Czech Republic, because despite being part of the EU/NATO political background and target of the currently proposed cyber security Directive, there are still differences present due to the national character of the cyber security. This contribution is not intended to be exhaustive and overwhelming source of answers, but rather as the approach to the future while taking into consideration both the present and the past. Main findings could be summarised in the following way: (1) the legislation in Lithuania and the Czech Republic is not as mature as it could be; (2) Lithuania approaches this issue rather more seriously compared to the Czech Republic, given the geographical proximity to Estonia and the 2008 cyber incident as evidenced, for example, by its participation within the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence; (3) public in both Lithuania and the Czech Republic seems to slowly understand the danger of the cyber insecurity, but it also approaches it carefully due to the totalitarian past; (4) cyber security in both countries is insufficient, but given the totalitarian past, the legislators should probably focus more on ensuring the cooperation of public and corporate/private sectors rather than imposing new legal obligations.