Late april the Estonians decided to relocate a monument to Soviet soldiers from the center of the capital city of Tallinn. This was seen a sacrilege to the Russians and from then on the country endured a heavy cyberattack. The computer attacks first hit the website of Estonia’s prime minister on April 27. The president’s site went down too, and soon so did those of other ministries. Then the attacks, coming in waves, began to strike newspapers and television stations, then schools and finally banks. For a month the life of the country had been disrupted. The entire state administration was paralyzed, banks came to a standstill and companies had to freeze their operations. The attacks have peaked and tapered off since then, but they have not ended. The computer attacks are mostly “denial of service” attacks, overwhelming servers and forcing them to shut down, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes longer. Estonia’s defense spokesman, said that sites that typically received 1,000 visits a day were flooded with as many as 2,000 a second.

In my opinion, four things stand out:

1. The vulnerability of Estonia, and with that Western countries in general. Research shows that all governments, public offices and schools, as well as 90 percent of all enterprises, have Internet connections. That means almost anything can be attacked. Next to that; in a cyberwar, governments are the slowest party to respond or retaliate.
2. Anonymous warfare. There is no hard evidence that these attacks come from Russia. The defence ministry says that the cyber attacks come from all over the world, but they hold Russia responsible. The Kremlin denies any involvement. The attackers are most likely Russian hackers.
3. You-Warfare. Time magazine said in its january 2007 issue that YOU are the ‘person of the year’; you control the information age: Instructions on how to carry out cyber warfarefare circulating in Russian on Russian websites for everybody to join the battle. Do-it-yourself warfare from the comfort of your own home.
4. Classic warfare terminology. Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the Nato sent in experts to Talin “to help them in their defence” and “You cannot underestimate the significance of this attack, also in military terms… In the 21st century it’s not just about tanks and artillery.”

Many cybercrime treaties are being made. The EU is working on such a treaty. Twelve European countries in the Balkan region have recently held a conference on Cybercrime. The NATO is hastly setting up a cyber defence system to be ready in 2008.

To me it all seems to be in vain. If it is impossible to stop a group of hackers, how can you stop a group of hackers fully sponsored and supported by a government in an open cyberwar? The old defense structures of governments seem to be hopelessly outdated and not suited to fight a cyberwar. The only solution in my opinion is a complete restructuring and rethinking of warfare in the 21st century and not just installing another taskforce.

An inspiring item on this subject in the IHT here.