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Europe
Cyber Assaults on Estonia Typify a New Battle Tactic
2007-05-20
Long but good WaPo piece on the events in Estonia.
TALLINN, Estonia, May 18 -- This small Baltic country, one of the most wired societies in Europe, has been subject in recent weeks to massive and coordinated cyber attacks on Web sites of the government, banks, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and news organizations, according to Estonian and foreign officials here.

Computer security specialists here call it an unprecedented assault on the public and private electronic infrastructure of a state. They say it is originating in Russia, which is angry over Estonia's recent relocation of a Soviet war memorial. Russian officials deny any government involvement.

The NATO alliance and the European Union have rushed information technology specialists to Estonia to observe and assist during the attacks, which have disrupted government e-mail and led financial institutions to shut down online banking.
Posted by:Steve White

#7  It was actually a pretty stoopid thing to do, motivated by Dire Revenge™, rather than by compelling national interest. It's a weapon that's best used by surprise, and they threw that away.

Unless the intel world has gone dumber than dirt since I left it, swarms of busy, busy people in at least four and probably eight countries are now poring over piles of logs and recordings of... ummm... things, analyzing the weapon used and finding how to either defeat it or turn it against its owners.

Really dumb move by the Russers. And dumb even if the budget for the busy, busy people has been diverted to global warming research. The Russers don't know if it has, any more than I do.
Posted by: Fred   2007-05-20 09:30  

#6  I love a good 'Red October' reference in the morning, lol!
Posted by: Raj   2007-05-20 09:26  

#5  Andrei, you've lost another Siberian pipeline?
Posted by: Dr. Jeffrey Pelt   2007-05-20 08:18  

#4  Solution: block all traffic originating from Russia.

This sort of abuse of the internet is really bad. We created this marvelous thing, and all other people can think of is how to ruin it.
Posted by: gromky   2007-05-20 08:06  

#3  This is an act of war and should be named as such. But then someone might feel obligated to do something. Here is a start: Identify as many perps as possible and send in the wet teams to disappear them. There have to be consequences.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-05-20 07:19  

#2  Russia playing Chess, and I may add, good players. Objective noted.
Bless Eastonia.
Posted by: newc   2007-05-20 02:24  

#1  Two of the major 'bot empires are controlled from Russia.
Posted by: mojo   2007-05-20 00:46  

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