The digital economy is amongst the most powerful loci of Canadian economic growth; over the past decade, the digital economy
grew roughly 40 per cent faster than – and generated almost four times as many jobs as – the overall economy. However, this spurt has also led to increased vulnerabilities in relation to cybersecurity; in 2020, successful cyber attacks
affected 78% of Canadian companies. Canada has quietly developed a robust cyber diplomacy approach aiming at promoting a rules-based international order in cyberspace, in line with the goals of other ‘like-minded’ states (including European Union countries). Both the EU and Canada share a vision of cyberspace as a domain of human activity that is open, free, and secure, and which is characterized by due regard for fundamental rights and democratic values. As such, Canada is an important strategic partner for Europe.
El Salvador is known for its adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2021. El Salvador’s
internet penetration rate stood at 50.5 % of the total population at the start of 2022, with over 4 million social media users. El Salvador is making important
progress towards digitalisation in terms of infrastructure capacity and reliability, but there are still challenges to overcome, such as access and affordability to internet connections, especially in rural areas. Regarding data protection, El Salvador still lacks a comprehensive data protection law, although the country has made improvements in the past years.
As of 2009, Ukraine has been a member of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and a strategic partner for the EU. On the basis of the
EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA) signed in 2014, the country has engaged in legislative and policy reforms aiming at gradual convergence with the EU
acquis, including on digital economy. During the past two years, digitalisation has become a
“flagship topic” in Ukraine, with a growing focus on e-government, digital citizenship, and state support for the local IT industry. Ukraine suffered large-scale cyberattacks during the 2014 presidential elections [
x], distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks during the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 [
x], malware attacks on its power grid in 2015 [
x], and was also heavily impacted by the devastating global-scale
NotPetya attack in 2017. This explains why Ukraine prioritised capacity building efforts to strengthen its cyber resilience.
