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| Science & Technology |
| Web Sites Under Attack in a Murky War |
| 2007-05-24 |
| Estonia has created a stir with its accusations that Kremlin-based hackers targeted government web sites. But it is not alone in grappling with cyber attacks. Hackers in recent months have targeted outspoken pro-Kremlin youth groups, opposition forces, ultranationalist organizations and media outlets, crashing their web sites with DDoS attacks -- the same type of attack that Estonia says was launched against its sites. And by all appearances, cyber attacks are becoming a popular means of silencing political opponents, and some observers see the recent wave of attacks as a rehearsal for upcoming State Duma and presidential elections. Targeted organizations almost without exception blame political opponents. Not only political organizations have been attacked. Two of the country's last independent-minded media outlets -- the Kommersant newspaper and Ekho Moskvy radio -- both had their web sites targeted earlier this month. The radio station has appealed to the Interior Ministry to open a criminal investigation into the attacks. But experts say there is little chance that the hackers will be brought to justice in these attacks, or those on Estonian sites. At the height of the Russian-Estonian dispute this month over the relocation of the Soviet monument, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet issued a sharply worded statement that "cyber terrorist attacks" against Estonian government web sites had been traced to computers in the Russian presidential administration. NATO has since sent a computer expert to Estonia to assess the ongoing attacks, which Estonia says started April 27, and Estonian Defense Minister Madis Mikko has likened them to military strikes. The Estonian claim that the attacks came from the Russian presidential administration "may have some grounds and may not," said Mikhail Polyakov, who, when reached by telephone, identified himself as a top adviser in the administration. Polyakov's name appeared as a contact on a list of IP addresses from which Estonia says the DDoS attacks have been conducted, a copy of which the Estonian Foreign Ministry provided to The Moscow Times. The list includes the names, phone numbers and the work addresses for people who had registered with the IP addresses, and one of the addresses included is 4 Staraya Ploshchad, where the headquarters of the presidential administration are located. The IP addresses in the Estonian list belong to various Russian government structures, including the Duma and the Federation Council, Polyakov said. But even that doesn't mean Duma deputies or senators were somehow associated with the attacks, experts said. Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky suggested that Vladislav Surkov, the powerful deputy head of President Vladimir Putin's administration, was running a "special department" orchestrating the attacks in order to "block information" ahead of the Duma elections in December and the presidential vote in March. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov firmly denied such possibility, however. Commenting on the information about attacks on Estonian web sites coming from the Russian president's administration, Peskov said: "I've repeatedly said that it doesn't represent the facts. These are very serious accusations. Estonia should have proof of them." Peskov could not explain, however, why web sites of the Russian president's administration were detected by the Estonian security systems. Asked whether hackers could have used the presidential administration web sites like that, he said: "That's impossible." |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #3 Yeah, Sgt.Mom, just look at your spam filter (if you don't have one, you better get one) and see how many of the spams come from .ru email addresses. Good luck asking Pooty to do anything about it. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-05-24 15:41 |
| #2 I've read that a lot of the auto-spam comments originate from there also. The barely literate ones advertising everything from prescription pharmaceuticals to pr*n. Reason enough to nuke them from orbit, just to make sure. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2007-05-24 08:11 |
| #1 Thanks for ruining the internet, Russia. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-05-24 05:48 |