(cont.) Response to interpellation 2024/25:115 on Sweden's information and cyber security strategy
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns Sweden's information and cybersecurity strategy. M argues that the previous government's strategy was deficient and that they are now implementing the largest investments in cybersecurity ever 1. M emphasizes that they are working systematically with new legislation and have improved the national cybersecurity center 1. M believes that the opposition is criticizing a strategy whose content they have not yet seen 2. S claims that cyberattacks are increasing sharply and that the government is not answering questions 3. S argues that the government's current policy is Social Democratic policy and that the previous strategies were applicable 4. S demands humility from the government 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! It is naturally fundamentally good that Member Markus Selin is very committed to strong cybersecurity. The problem is that he completely ignores the situation we are coming from.
Markus Selin mentioned the previous government's cybersecurity strategy. Let me remind Markus Selin of what we came to when we took over government power. We came to a National Audit Office report that directed stinging criticism at precisely that cybersecurity strategy that the previous government decided on.
It is noted in the report that it does not live up to best practice in comparison with international standards. It is noted that the strategy in its entirety has led to weak governance from the government's side, a malfunctioning national cybersecurity center, etcetera. It completely rejects the cybersecurity policy that has been conducted 2017-2022.
It is this reclamation that the government has had to start from. We have not directly sat idle during the 13 months that have passed since we last saw each other and discussed this issue in the chamber. We are now putting the finishing touches on a national cybersecurity strategy that will be something completely different from the feel-good measure that the previous government decided on.
During this period, we have also tightened the requirements in a hundred regulatory letters for agencies so that they will get moving with their respective cybersecurity work. We have fundamentally overhauled the national cybersecurity center, which was poorly functioning. It had all the deficiencies that were identified in the National Audit Office's report. This is being redone now, while we are carrying out the largest investments in cybersecurity that any government has ever made.
It is naturally fundamentally good that the opposition parties join the government's policy. But the outstanding question is: If there was an insight that the problem was this large, why did the previous government then do nothing about the issue? Why did one let Sweden fall behind in the work with cybersecurity to such a mild degree that the Swedish National Audit Office directs much severe criticism towards the cybersecurity work that has historically been conducted?
The government is now working systematically and methodically to strengthen Sweden's capacity for better cybersecurity across the board. This includes, among other things, new cybersecurity legislation that will be in place during the next year and which will impose higher and more comprehensive requirements on more actors in society to avoid the types of situations that Markus Selin gives examples of.
They are, of course, fundamentally unacceptable. But they also highlight what is central here. Each individual actor is responsible for their own cybersecurity and for their own continuity planning.
Markus Selin (S)
Madam Speaker! Bio tickets that cannot be purchased. Urns and coffins that have to be put on hold. Wage payments that are not being made in municipality after municipality and region after region.
Madam Speaker! It is only a matter of time before this seriously affects life and health - Swedish lives and Swedish health. Sweden stands out. Cyberattacks increased by 165 percent last quarter, Madam Speaker. Sweden stands out with the strongest increase in all of Europe.
We come from a time where in particular the Moderates, who today are a governing party, both in the autumn of 2020 and the autumn of 2021 spoke about the importance of strategic cyber policy. It is almost a bit tragicomic, excuse the expression, to read the old documents and ideas today. They are somewhat pompous words: A strategy shall contain GOALS, MEANS and METHOD.
It becomes a bit comical to listen to Minister Bohlin when he speaks about how we stand in the world. I listened to the question period on Thursday. That is why I submitted the interpellation to our Minister for Digitalization, who Carl-Oskar Bohlin pointed out is our Civil Minister Erik Slottner, Kristdemokraterna. He does not want to answer.
Our Minister for Digitalization does not want to answer. It runs like a common thread with the chaos and how difficult it is to hold the government accountable when it comes to information management and digitalization.
I borrow words from Minister Erik Slottner himself last Thursday: "We have probably never had a government that has worked so committedly and actively with digitalization issues and issues regarding artificial intelligence as we do now. I do not sleep badly at night with a bad conscience about this." This was said last Thursday. I, along with many others, sleep badly at night, Madam Speaker, in the situation we are in now.
Again: Minister Bohlin can wave the National Audit Office's report from last year as much as he likes. I have all respect for the National Audit Office's work. But the National Audit Office's work is 82 pages of text that actually highlights the lack of strategy.
If one wants to familiarize oneself properly – which I recommend Minister Bohlin to do in earnest – one should look at the large cybersecurity investigation that we Social Democrats ordered and were tasked to handle. It is 537 pages. Everything is highlighted here.
The Minister Bohlin claims would be from some right-wing government or a moderate idea, but it is not. He speaks of a national cybersecurity center 2.0, or whatever the Minister calls it in the response to the interpellation. It is also described already in July 2021 in the major cybersecurity investigation. I could stand here and quote from the papers straight up and down.
My point is that nothing is new. Where is the strategy, Madam Speaker? That is why I stood here in the chamber 13 months ago. I then quoted from Lewis Carroll's book from 1865. "If you don't know where you are going, it doesn't matter which way you take." That is the cat's answer in Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Just because one shouts and acts aggressively does not mean one is correct in substance. What is said in the National Audit Office's report is that there is a lack of strategy. Then, the period from 2017 to October 2022 is pointed out. One judges the strategy adopted by the government that Markus Selin himself was a government basis for.
We are addressing all of this now. I am not standing here saying this to shift the blame. I am simply stating that in order to know where we are, one must understand where we come from. We come from a situation where these issues, due to a lack of interest or because other issues have been prioritized, have been neglected for a very long time. This has naturally resulted in Sweden falling behind.
We addressed all these sour notes. We addressed the conclusions and the criticism from the Swedish National Audit Office. That led us to the conclusion that we need to have a completely different direction for the strategy and that the strategy must become good. The member has received an answer: This strategy will be coming in the absolute near future. I look forward to discussing the strategy and its material content when we have it in front of us. It is, however, a bit presumptuous, Madam Speaker, when a member of the Swedish Riksdag stands and criticizes a strategy whose content he has not yet seen.
Unfortunately, a recurring pattern from the opposition follows, which is to be against for the sake of being against and that one is not so interested in the actual content. Before the member judges the strategy, it would be appropriate if he wanted to take part in it. It is, of course, also my hope that Markus Selin intends to do this – to read it from cover to cover and thereafter return with any comments. I hope that we can then discuss them in a constructive spirit.
Markus Selin (S)
Madam Speaker! For 777 days, this government has now governed Sweden. I have heard quite a lot about how this cyber policy was supposed to be historic, the biggest investment the government has made, a powerful realignment, new and groundbreaking – and that this was a deprioritized issue for us Social Democrats! I mean, when does humility enter the picture?
Madam Speaker! I can answer one thing. We lost the election in the autumn of 2022. That is what we did, but we had the steam up. This government paused. Everything here, the entire framework, is Social Democratic policy: National Cybersecurity Centre, the Agency for Digital Government, i.e., Digg, the Agency for Psychological Defence and the Agency for Total Defence Analysis.
The digitalization strategy that we are discussing now, we would, of course, update and revise continuously, especially considering the global situation we have and that the number of cyberattacks increased by 165 percent last quarter. When the urns and chests are on standby, Madam Speaker, it is perhaps time to at least consider being a little humble!
Thirteen months ago, we stood here and debated this question. What is the problem? I believe it is about self-awareness instead of humility. I would like to believe that it was not so easy. The previous Social Democratic strategy was probably quite applicable. At that time, the Moderates would have driven up such a tone, and now one is stuck in that predicament.
Madam Speaker! I look forward to seeing this cybersecurity strategy, which more or less risks life and health.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Markus Selin draws two conclusions, if I understand him and his tirade against the government correctly. The first is that the previous cybersecurity strategy was somewhat applicable, and the second is that a not yet decided cybersecurity strategy threatens life and health. It is quite astonishing to stand and listen to this in the chamber of the Swedish Riksdag.
The judgment I passed regarding the previous cybersecurity strategy was not mine, but the National Audit Office's. It is therefore the National Audit Office that has condemned the previous cybersecurity strategy. Regarding the quality of the upcoming cybersecurity strategy, I believe it would be decent to at least wait until it arrives before making an assessment of the quality of the strategy itself.
Madam Speaker! I can please Markus Selin by telling him that it is coming in the near future. He will be about to read this cybersecurity strategy very soon. I look forward to a new debate then, but to stand here in the speaker's chair in the Swedish Riksdag and conduct some kind of pseudo-discussion about the content of a product that has not yet been decided becomes quite strange.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.