Reprinted from Crypto-Gram, by Bruce Schneier [schneier@SCHNEIER.COM]

On April 27, 2007, Estonia was attacked in cyberspace.  Following a
diplomatic incident with Russia about the relocation of a Soviet World
War II memorial, the networks of many Estonian organizations, including
the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters,
were attacked and — in many cases — shut down.  Estonia was quick to
blame Russia, which was equally quick to deny any involvement.

It was hyped as the first cyberwar: Russia attacking Estonia in
cyberspace.  But nearly a year later, evidence that the Russian
government was involved in the denial-of-service attacks still hasn’t
emerged. Though Russian hackers were indisputably the major instigators
of the attack, the only individuals positively identified have been
young ethnic Russians living inside Estonia, who were pissed off over
the statue incident.

You know you’ve got a problem when you can’t tell a hostile attack by
another nation from bored kids with an axe to grind.
——————————-

This article goes on for another 4 pages but if you’re interested, you can read the rest of it on Bruce’s blog, at http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0805.html

Front page for Crypto-Gram:  http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html