14 DAY TRIAL // Estonia has built a volunteer cyber army following the 2007 crippling cyber attack against the country's Internet infrastructure and is now considering a mandatory draft among IT experts to increase its efficiency.
Dubbed the Cyber Defense League, the cyber unit is currently brings together computers scientists, software engineers and security researchers from both government agencies and the private sector.
The team conducts exercises that simulate various cyber attack scenarios every weekend and in the case of war, it would take orders from the military.
According to Estonia's Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo, this volunteer organization was made possible by the fighting spirit of the Estonian people, who are used to organizing themselves in paramilitary forces.
During the last century, the Baltic country was invaded by the both the Russians and the Germans and was also one of the first nations to experience cyber war.
In April 2007, the government's decision to relocate a World Word II soviet memorial monument and the remains of soviet soldiers resulted in street riots in Tallinn.
Soon afterward, the country's Internet infrastructure was disrupted by a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
The attack was traced back to Russia and is believed to have been ordered by Russian officials who have a close connection with hackers.
Nevertheless, the Estonian government doesn't believe the Cyber Defense League has enough manpower to protect the entire country if a true cyber war brokes out.
Because of this, it is considering a mandatory draft for IT experts in times of crisis. "We are thinking of introducing this conscript service, a cyber service," minister Aaviksoo told NPR.
"This is an idea that we've been playing around [with]. We don't have the mechanism or laws in place, but it might be one option," he explained.
Other countries that are building or already have their own cyber defense forces are the United States, United Kingdom, India and Germany.