Cyber Assaults on Estonia Typify a New Battle Tactic Washington Post (05/19/07) P. A1; Finn, Peter
as it appeared in the May 21, 2007 edition of ACM TechNews.
Estonia, one of the most wired countries in Europe, was recently subjected to massive and coordinated attacks against the country's Web sites, including sites belonging to the government, banks, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers, and news organizations, according to Estonian and foreign officials. Computer security specialists called the attacks against the country's public and private electronic infrastructure unprecedented. The NATO alliance and the European Union have sent technology specialists to Estonia to observe and help during the attacks, which so far have disrupted government email and caused financial institutions to shut down online banking. Security experts and officials have warned that during times of war enemies may launch massive online attacks against a target, and the Department of Homeland Security has warned that U.S. networks need to be secured against al-Qaeda hackers. The attacks against Estonia provide an opportunity to observe how such assaults may be executed. Estonia's minister of defense Jaak Aaviksoo said the attacks were massive, well targeted, and well organized. Aaviksoo said about 1 million computers worldwide were used in Botnet attacks that began April 27. By May 1, Estonian Internet service providers were forced to disconnect all customers for 20 seconds to reboot their networks. By May 10, bots were probing Estonian banks, looking for weaknesses, and Estonia's largest bank was forced to shut down all services for an hour and a half. Estonian IT consultant Linnar Viik called the attacks an attempt to take a country back to the Stone Age, and said in the 21st century a country is no longer defined only by its territory and airspace, but by its electronic infrastructure as well. Click Here to View Full Article
