Welcome to this edition of Kood Letter!
News
Veriff Acquires Vespia to Build a Comprehensive Trust Platform
Estonian identity verification unicorn Veriff has acquired Vespia, a technology company specialising in Know Your Business (KYB) verification. The deal marks a strategic move for Veriff to expand beyond individual identity verification towards becoming a full-spectrum trust platform. Vespia was founded by one of Veriff’s earliest employees. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
LHV Launches Major Mobile App Redesign — Then Faces Outage
LHV kicked off February with a significant visual overhaul of its mobile app, rolling out a new design language and improved information architecture to the first users in the first two weeks of the month. The update is described as the foundation for a larger set of improvements planned throughout 2026. However, on February 6th, both the LHV mobile app and internet bank experienced a service outage, reminding users that digital banking reliability remains as important as ever.
HankeFilter: A New Tool for Tracking Estonian Public Procurement
A new tool called HankeFilter has arrived on the Estonian market, aiming to make public procurement monitoring effortless. The platform offers real-time notifications, monitoring, and analysis of riigihangete (public tenders), helping companies avoid missing out on opportunities. The service also includes a profitability calculator to help businesses assess whether participating in a tender is worth their time.
This comes alongside the Estonian government sending a draft law to the Riigikogu in January to simplify procurement rules — removing the intermediate national tender threshold, raising the simplified tender thresholds, and potentially cutting the average procurement process time from ~87 days to ~50 days.
Smart-ID+ Rolls Out for Estonian State E-Services on February 26
As of today, RIA has launched Smart-ID+ across all major state e-services — including eesti.ee, the health portal, the Tax and Customs Board, and the Social Insurance Board. The upgrade introduces two new login flows: on mobile, the Smart-ID app opens automatically for PIN1 confirmation; on desktop, a continuously refreshing QR code replaces the old control-code comparison method. Both changes are designed to make it significantly harder for fraudsters to trick users into confirming actions they didn’t initiate.
President’s Cultural Endowment: Young IT Scientist Award
The President of the Republic’s Cultural Endowment (Vabariigi Presidendi Kultuurirahastu), founded in 1993, annually awards the Noore IT-teadlase preemia (Young IT Scientist Award) alongside prizes for young scientists, engineers, educators, and cultural figures. The endowment gathers donations from individuals, businesses, and organisations to support Estonian culture, education, and science.
Cyber
Russia Blocks Telegram and WhatsApp — Starlink Also Cut Off at the Front
In early February, Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor began throttling Telegram, citing the platform’s alleged failure to combat fraud and protect user data. WhatsApp was blocked two days later, around February 12. The real motive appears to be pushing Russian users toward MAX, a state-controlled messaging app that shares data with Russian authorities and lacks end-to-end encryption. Meanwhile, SpaceX revoked Starlink access for Russian forces operating in Ukraine, cutting internet connectivity across an estimated thousand kilometres of frontline — leaving units unable to coordinate attacks and, in at least one incident in Zaporizhzhia, leading to troops being hit by friendly fire. The dual blow has sparked rare public criticism inside Russia, including from typically Kremlin-loyal politicians.
January in Cyberspace: A Rough Start to 2026
The Information System Authority (RIA) registered 768 incidents in January — and it was a turbulent month for Estonian digital services.
New Year’s midnight brought an immediate crisis: digital signatures via Smart-ID, Mobile-ID, and ID cards all failed at the stroke of midnight due to a software error in the Digidoc4j library, which stopped accepting validity confirmation responses signed with the current key length upon entering 2026. Banks including Swedbank, SEB, LHV, and Coop were also unable to process transfers. Most services were restored by afternoon on January 1st.
Other notable incidents during January:
- Jan 9–12: The ferry ticket portal tuuleliinid.ee went offline for three days due to a change in ticket sales provider.
- Jan 16: An electricity distribution company lost voice and data communications due to a telecom equipment failure.
- Jan 22: LHV clients had card and cash transactions counted twice due to a technical error; the bank refunded the incorrectly reserved amounts.
- Jan 23: Telia experienced disruptions in data and voice communications caused by a malfunction in a partner’s network equipment.
- Jan 27: Elisa suffered a widespread overnight outage affecting calls, mobile and cable internet, Elisa Mobile-ID, self-service, website, and its Elisa Elamus streaming service — triggered by a power failure at a data centre.
Ransomware hits two companies: On January 12, a water company in Ida-Viru County was hit, with data on 11 servers encrypted (restored from backups). On January 13, an industrial company in Harju County had one computer encrypted. Neither attack caused major operational impact, but RIA urges all companies to review their ransomware preparedness at itvaatlik.ee.
Kimwolf botnet: RIA warns of a new botnet called Kimwolf, which uses compromised home devices to carry out cyberattacks. An estimated 2 million devices are already infected worldwide, including devices belonging to US government agencies. CERT-EE has identified the first infections in Estonia.
Read the full RIA January report
Upcoming Events
Tehnopol Startup Pre-accelerator (Tallinn)
Date: March 9–12, 2026
A four-day intensive pre-accelerator for early-stage founders with a tech idea who want to validate, stress-test, and take their first real steps toward building a startup — with mentorship from experienced founders and investors. The best team earns a direct path into the Tehnopol Startup Incubator’s main accelerator intake panel.
Registration: Register here
RIA CyberMeetUp – March 2026 (Tallinn)
Date: March 19, 2026 (from 18:00)
Estonia’s monthly cyber community meetup, held in English, with expert talks on the latest threat landscape followed by open networking. The talks are also live-streamed on RIA’s social channels.
More info: ria.ee/en/cyber-security/community
Garage48 Empowering Women Hackathon (Jõhvi)
Date: March 20–22, 2026
A 48-hour hackathon supporting women founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, where participants form teams, validate ideas, and build prototypes with expert mentorship.
More information: Register here
MõtteHäkk 2026 (Jõgevamaa)
Date: March 25, 2026
A one-day community hackathon for young people aged 13–21 from Southern Estonia to develop ideas that improve their local communities, with mentoring support and a €1,000 prize for the best initiative. Participation, transport, and lunch are all free — register your idea by March 8th.
Registration: Register here
TechChill 2026 (Riga)
Date: March 25–27, 2026
The Baltic startup conference celebrates its 15th anniversary with a €1 million Founders Battle prize fund, bringing together startups, investors, and tech professionals from across the region.
More information: techchill.co
Enginaator 2026 — Estonia’s National Engineering Competition (Tallinn)
Date: April 17–20, 2026
Estonia’s largest engineering competition for 18–24 year olds, where teams of four compete over four days for a share of the ~€3,000 prize pool and a guaranteed place at TalTech.
Registration: Register here
MarineHäkk (Tallinn)
Date: May 8, 2026
A hackathon focused on maritime, marine tech, and blue economy innovation, combining hands-on hacking with workshops and startup-focused meetups.
Register here: taltech.ee
Latitude59 2026 (Tallinn)
Date: May 21–22, 2026
Estonia’s flagship startup and tech conference, connecting founders, investors, and tech leaders from around the world for talks, startup pitches, and networking.
More information: latitude59.ee
HIPTHER Baltics: Tallinn Summit
Date: June 2, 2026
A one-day summit connecting policy leaders, tech entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators to discuss digital-first governance, data infrastructure, and trust frameworks — set against Estonia’s e-government backdrop.
More information: hipther.com/events/tallinn
Job Offers
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