How can a country whose sovereign territory measures only two square kilometres ensure that its sensitive data is protected from the risks of cyber attacks and natural disaster? For the Principality of Monaco, the answer was to seek a location for a so-called data embassy. Following the precedent set by Estonia, which opened the world’s first data embassy in LuxConnect’s certified Tier IV data centre in 2018, the Monégasque authorities approached Luxembourg to seek a similar solution. Two and a half years later, the project has been finalised.
“This agreement is a first step towards a strengthened partnership in the digital field between the Principality of Monaco and Luxembourg. I am delighted with this arrangement proposed by our Luxembourg partner, which gives the Principality the benefit of a solution for safeguarding its data, in order to prevent any major risk,” said Monégasque minister of state, Pierre Dartout.
“This e-embassy was designed and built in Luxembourg, but with our security standards, so as to guarantee the sovereignty of our national digital data,” said initiator of the project, Frédéric Genta, a member of the Monaco government n charge of digital affairs and country transformation.
This is the first of its kind for Monaco. Under the terms of the agreement, the data embassy has the same guarantees of inviolability and immunity as those granted to a physical embassy. As well as Estonia, a country viewed as a world leader in terms of transforming into a digital society, NATO and the European Commission also have similar data embassy arrangements with Luxembourg.