Estonia will support the modernization of the cyber infrastructure of Ukraine’s State Tax Service under the Tallinn Mechanism. The country will fund a project to implement a centralized Privileged Access Management (PAM) system. This will be Estonia’s first infrastructure project funded under the Tallinn Mechanism.
The Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) will serve as the project’s implementing partner. A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by Acting Head of the State Tax Service Lesya Karnaukh and ESTDEV Executive Director Andrea Kivi.
The new PAM system will help the State Tax Service centrally manage administrator access to critical IT resources. In practice, this means better control over who can access critical information systems, when they can access them, and which resources they can use. The system will help reduce cybersecurity risks and strengthen the protection of sensitive data.
“State tax administration depends directly on secure and reliable information systems. For Ukraine, protecting these systems is particularly important at a time when the country’s digital infrastructure is constantly targeted by Russian cyberattacks. Estonia can offer practical experience in both building a digital state and strengthening cybersecurity. Our goal is not only to introduce a technical solution, but also to strengthen the capacity of Ukraine’s Tax Service so that critical systems are better protected in the future as well,” said Andrea Kivi.
The project will strengthen the protection of the State Tax Service’s critical information systems against both internal and external threats. Multi-factor authentication will provide an additional layer of security and help prevent unauthorized access.
“Such a partnership is of strategic importance for us, as it concerns a critically important area – cybersecurity and cyber resilience. In the full-scale war conditions, when state institutions are under constant cyberattacks, reliable protection of information systems and data is an absolute priority for the State Tax Service,” emphasized Lesya Karnaukh.
Alongside infrastructure projects, Estonia continues to support strengthening the skills of Ukrainian cybersecurity professionals.
The UA-EE Cyber Shield programme, implemented under the Tallinn Mechanism, provides technical training and practical cyber exercises for Ukrainian specialists. The programme is implemented by ESTDEV and the e-Governance Academy (eGA) in partnership with Ukraine’s National Cybersecurity Coordination Center (NCSCC) and CybExer. More than 300 participants have already taken part in the programme, including 188 specialists who completed technical training and 120 who participated in cyber exercises.
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