CYBERSECURITY CONTEXT IN ICELAND Iceland has one of the highest take-ups of internet access in the world, with an Internet penetration rate of 98 percent in 20154. This is the highest proportion of Internet users of all European countries; the average household internet penetration rate within the European Union was 81 percent in 20145. With near ubiquitous access, Icelanders are frequent Internet users, with 95 percent of users connecting to the internet daily or almost daily, and 99 percent of users connecting every week in 20146. Iceland also has one of the highest index rates of internet and social media usage (6.8) in the world, according to the World Economic Forum7. Specifically, 84 percent of the population use social networks, 95 percent read news online, 95 percent send or receive emails, 36 percent store electronic content online, and 66 percent use internet commerce8. Iceland is promoting free speech, while Internet and digital media play a vital role in Icelandic society. In 2010, the Icelandic parliament adopted a resolution Nr. 23/138 suggesting that Iceland should take a lead in protection of free speech and freedom of expression9, but it has had limited follow-up. There was no change in the Internet freedom environment in 2016. The annual statistics database on telecommunication use in the Nordic and Baltic countries (2016)10 show that Iceland is the only country where most of the fixed broadband connections are still via DSL technology. Something that will change until 2020 with the closing down of the PSTN network. During the GCSCC review, participants often referred to regulations, laws, activities, processes etc. which are either mandatory or recommended as a consequence of Iceland’s membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), NATO and other organisations such as Interpol. As an EEA member state, Iceland is also part of the Digital Single Market strategy, the goal of which is both to develop the European Data Economy and to promote online platforms, protecting Europe's assets by tackling cybersecurity challenges11. This initiative includes the planned review of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy in September 2017 as well as additional measures addressing cybersecurity standards, certification and labelling to make connected users more cyber secure. These developments may have an impact on the action plan for the Icelandic National Cybersecurity Strategy. 4 Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2016. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2016/iceland International Telecommunication Union, “Percentage of individuals using the internet,” 2015, 2013 & 2008, http://bit.ly/1cblxxY 6 Statistics Iceland, “Statistical Yearbook of Iceland 2015,” http://bit.ly/1QUsztW 7 World Economic Forum, The Global Information Technology Report 2015, bit.ly/1yutYRc 8 Statistics Iceland, “Statistical Yearbook of Iceland 2015,” http://bit.ly/1QUsztW 9 Þingsályktun um að Ísland skapi sér afgerandi lagalega sérstöðu varðandi vernd tjáningar og upplýsingafrelsis. http://www.althingi.is/altext/138/s/1392.html 10 https://www.pfs.is/english/about-pta/news/news/2017/06/22/Nordic-and-Baltic-statistics-ontelecommunication-use-in-2016-Fast-increase-in-data-use-over-mobile/ 11 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1232_en.htm 5 16 | Cybersecurity Capacity Review Iceland, 2017