Team

Liina joined CyberNet in 2021 to lead the creation of the Regional Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Competence Centre in the Dominican Republic. This role follows up her previous work in the region through the EU Cyber4Dev project, where she served as Consortium Partner Leader, coordinating Estonian contribution to the first global EU cyber capacity building project.

She is thrilled to be part of the CyberNet team of highly driven specialists working under the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA), a public agency whose purpose is to bring together Estonia’s cyber and e-Gov expertise to develop, administer and protect the best digital society of the world.

Liina has had a diverse career, looking at cybersecurity and international co-operation from a variety of angles since 2007, as a diplomat in NATO, Cybersecurity Adviser at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, Director of International Relations at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and at RIA. She has also worked as the Director of Tallinn Digital Summit and held a variety of policy roles at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, including as an arms control adviser.

Her graduate and postgraduate studies and academic work have taken her to the universities of Tartu, St-Petersburg, Oslo, Castellón and the NATO Defence College in Rome.

Liina has been awarded the Order of the White Star by the Estonian President.

Alongside all this, she is a proud mother of 4, and combines her domestic kingdom with extensive travel, long distance running, culinary delights and extreme adventures.

Lauri is coordinating the training and consultation missions and upholding the CyberNet’s training and services catalogue since 2022.

Lauri holds a degree in law (LL.M) and IT management (MBA). His interest in cybersecurity has followed him throughout his professional career. After finishing the LL.M in 2002, he took the public prosecutor’s exam and joined Estonian prosecutor’s office, specialising in computer crime. He has also worked as a legal adviser in a commercial bank in the field of IT law. In 2010-2019 for almost a decade he was the Head of Law Branch at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, addressing novel legal problems related to cyberspace and international cyber norms development, and at the same time he was the Legal Advisor of that think tank. As an Ambassador of the NATO CCDCOE, he continues an affiliation with the CCDCOE and contributes to building new partnerships.

In 2019 Lauri joined the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA), a national cyber security centre and digital development agency first as the Deputy Director General and the Director of Cyber Security. His responsibilities included operational oversight of Estonian cyber domain, incl. cyber incident management (CERT-EE), critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP), IT baseline security standard (E-ITS), and cyber security awareness.

For Silja-Madli Ossip, it is important that what she does at work is something she truly cares about and that it offers both challenges and opportunities for development. The EU CyberNet project meets all of these criteria, entrusting her with a wide range of tasks. Silja has been involved in the project almost since its inception – it was she who helped to draft the tender for the European Commission that would go on to win the Information System Authority the procurement and bring EU CyberNet funding to Estonia. She began putting the tender together in spring 2019 and started working on the project itself in September of that year.

Silja lives in Tallinn, but often finds herself on business trips. These mostly take her to Belgium, but also to other parts of Europe, and from time to time to more exotic destinations like Tunisia and Singapore. Previously, Silja held a variety of posts supporting the state in the digital and cyber fields, including in Brussels as part of the team for the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. She has a Bachelor’s degree from University of Tartu and Master’s degree in International Relations from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

César Moliné Rodríguez serves as Regional Representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Cyber Competence Centre (LAC4). He oversees managing and coordinating the day-to-day operations of the Center, including cooperation with national administrations, industry, academia and the private sector to support the growth and integration of the Centre on the global cybersecurity ecosystem.

César is a lawyer specialized in business law and new technologies with more than 20 years of experience in the areas of e-commerce and digital signatures, privacy and cybersecurity. Among his functions, he has served as Director of Cybersecurity, Electronic Commerce and Digital Signature of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL), Working Group Coordinator of the Global Forum of Cybernetic Expertise (GFCE), and is also a representative of the Dominican Republic in the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) of the Council of Europe.

He has various degrees in areas such as Electronic Commerce from Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Electronic Government from Universidad de Chile. He also has studies on New Technologies Law from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ICT Policy Development from the Korea Development Center, Regulation of Public Utilities from the University of Florida and Regulation of Telecommunications from Neotelis and the United States Telecommunications Institute, as well as in Cybersecurity from Universidad de León and from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and International Law from Reading University.

He is a rum enthusiast and connoisseur and he divides his free time between Scubadiving and Geocaching.

Merili joined EU CyberNet project as LAC Regional Programme Lead from 1 August 2023 to lead and coordinate through Latin America and Caribbean Cyber Competence Centre (LAC4) our cyber capacity building activities in the region.

From April 2021 to September 2023 Merili was the Consortium Partner Leader of Estonia in the first global EU cyber capacity and resilience building project EU Cyber4Dev. Her role was to plan and steer Estonian participation through the Information System Authority (RIA) in the project and represent Cyber4Dev internationally. In addition to that, she was coordinating all project’s cyber capacity building activities in the Latin America and Caribbean region with special focus on policies, CSRIT development and cyber awareness.

Before that, Merili has worked 10 years in various positions within the Estonian government (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Equality Commissioner’s office), mainly focusing on EU politics and international relations. From 2018-2021 Merili was the counsellor on home affairs in the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the European Union in Brussels where her role was to negotiate EU legislation and coordinate the development of national positions in the fields of border management, Schengen area, visas, large-scale IT systems and COVID-19 policies regarding free movement and represent Estonian positions and interests in various EU working groups and formats.

Prior to this, Merili worked with OECD member states and beneficiary countries in the Development Cooperation Directorate in the OECD where she was responsible for the coordination of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) meetings and DAC Network on Gender Equality.

Merili has ample project management experience from various OECD and EU projects from the development, cyber security and gender equality areas.

Merili holds an MA degree in European Politics from the Institute of Political Science of Strasbourg, France. She speaks fluently Estonian, English and French and has limited working proficiency in Spanish.

In her spare time Merili enjoys long walks and playing with her brand new corgi Winston and tries to spend as much time as possible in the beautiful Estonian countryside.

Cecilia joined the EU CyberNet team in October 2023 as the Experts Lead. She brings over 13 years of experience in the fields of criminal justice and human rights, contributing to prison reentry efforts in Romania, working with restorative justice practices in the UK, the US and Romania, analysing conflict resolutions in Thailand, Cambodia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fighting cybercrime through the implementation of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, and advancing child friendly justice systems across Europe. In her current position, she is eager to elevate the work of the EU Cyber Experts Pool to advance efforts for a free, open and safe cyberspace.

Cecilia holds the distinction of being both a Fulbright Scholar Alumna and a Rotary Peace Fellow Alumna. Her academic journey, focused on social sciences, criminal justice, and conflict resolution, led her to diverse places, spanning Romania (Babes-Bolyai and Bucharest Universities), the United States (John Jay College of Criminal Justice), and Thailand (Chulalongkorn University).

Cecilia has a deep affection for animals, with a special fondness for cats and giraffes. While giraffes may be too impractical for her apartment, she resumes to cats. Her interests extend to a love for mountains, good books, and playing sports, among other passions.

Sten joined the team in April 2024 to ensure effective communication, marketing and PR activities for EU CyberNet project around the world. His main focuses are handling media relation, public outreach and social media presence.

Sten has a hands-on experience in managing communication and PR of international affairs, EU-affairs foreign and security policy, digital transition and e-governance. He has worked as a press officer to the Prime Minister of Estonia from 2021 to 2023 where he managed Prime Minister’s international PR activities and communications, and communications for government’s EU-affairs. Previously, Sten has worked as a press and communications officer at the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sten has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Tartu.

Adria joined EU CyberNet in March 2023.

With a degree in Business Administration, Adria has strong know-how in her professional field. She has more than 3 years of experience in the administration area developing as an administrative assistant for an international logistics company, also as an executive assistant and in charge of mobilization in a global IT company.

Adria is a proactive, persistent, responsible, passionate and committed person with the proposed goals. She enjoys challenges as they provide knowledge and growth in her professional and personal path.

Living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Adria loves the local beaches and the warm climate of the Caribbean.

Kristiina Ramat joined the Information System Authority and EU CyberNet in March 2021 and her role in the EU CyberNet project is to provide administrative support with regard to tenders, logistics, budget and other administrative assignments. For Kristiina, it is important to keep hectic and complex projects on track, and to move forward no matter the challenge.

Prior to joining EU CyberNet, Kristiina has been working in the field of administration since 2008. She has worked as an assistant to a Resident Twinning Advisor at the Ministry of Environment, as a business administration in an international pharmaceutical company, and as administrative support at the Executive Director´s Office at the European Agency for the Operational Management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (eu-LISA). During the past 5 years, she worked as a course coordination specialist at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCDCOE).

Kristiina Ramat graduated from the Tallinn University of Technology with a degree in Public Administration.

Kristiina lives in Tallinn, but her travels sometimes take her either physically or virtually to Europe.

Winston is a true cyber security champion and he has taught us the fundamental rules:

Stay protective – guard your network access as Winston guards his owner Merili.

Keep your area patrolled – Check the source (and sniff if necessary) of every communication to verify if it is a trusted one.

Bark it out – alert the IT team immediately when you suspect a spoofing email or virus (or a pigeon behind the window).

Work together – as a true working dog, Winston keeps his friends close by and counts on them for cooperation and mutual assistance if necessary.