In Estonia, War Fears Turn to Cyberspace
29 May NY Times - In Estonia, War Fears Turn to Cyberspace by Mark Lander and John Markoff.
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When Estonian authorities began removing a bronze statue of a World War II-era Soviet soldier from a park in this bustling Baltic seaport last month, they expected violent street protests by Estonians of Russian descent.
They also knew from experience that “if there are fights on the street, there are going to be fights on the Internet,” said Hillar Aarelaid, the director of Estonia’s Computer Emergency Response Team. After all, for people here the Internet is almost as vital as running water; it is used routinely to vote, file their taxes, and, with their cellphones, to shop or pay for parking.
What followed was what some here describe as the first war in cyberspace, a monthlong campaign that has forced Estonian authorities to defend their pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood that they say was set off by orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation for the removal of the statue...
Estonia's Minister of Defence discusses cyber defence and Iraq with Polish MOD
On Tuesday evening, the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jaak Aaviksoo, met with his Polish counterpart, Mr. Aleksander Szczygło, in Warsaw. The ministers discussed international operations, air policing and cyber defence during a very friendly and open meeting.
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After the meeting, the Polish Defence Minister, who rendered unwavering support to Estonia during the disturbances in April and the subsequent cyber attacks, said, “Estonia is the first example of a situation where the threat was real, not imagined.” He continued by saying that, “ we cannot pretend nothing happened, and NATO must take it very seriously.”
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Both ministers were of the opinion that the withdrawal of forces from Iraq would be unacceptable in light of the current situation.
More here...
More Defense for Estonia from Cyber Attacks
SECDEF Gates Urges NATO Ministers To Defend Against Cyber Attacks
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BRUSSELS -- At a meeting of allied defense ministers, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Western nations to begin planning how they would respond to a cyber attack, said a senior defense official. His call to action, issued to his colleagues at a session Thursday, followed an unprecedented cyber assault on Estonia that briefly shut down its electronic banking system earlier this spring.
We may never see a digital Pearl Harbor,
"but I am sure we will see many more digital skirmishes."
BH Consulting’s Security Watch Blog reports on Botnets - Digital Weapons of Mass Destruction?
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What is interesting to note in Estonia’s case is that the Internet itself is their critical infrastructure. Therefore the attackers did not need to target the traditional SCADA systems in order to create havoc to Estonia’s critical infrastructure and its economy.
Despite some claims that these attacks are
the first case of Cyber Warfare, this is not necessarily the case;
1. The United States has admitted to using Cyber Warfare in the Kosovo conflict
2. China has been accused of concerted attacks against US government systems, otherwise known as
Titan Rain
3. In 2005 the UK NISCC stated that
foreign powers are the main cyber threat to the UK’s critical network infrastructure.
4. Regional conflicts such as those between India and Pakistan and the Israeli-Palistinian conflict have also led to online attacks against each other.
Whether or not the attacks were state sponsored or the work of activists, they highlight that Botnets are moving up the food chain from being spam distribution agents and may now be considered Cyber Weapons of Mass Destruction. Will these Botnets become the equivalent of the nuclear deterrent from the Cold War?
Russia 'hired botnets' for Estonia cyber-war
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The Russian authorities have been accused of buying time on illegal botnets to launch a denial-of-service attack against Estonia.
The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA), which comprises arms groups and financial services companies, claims to have uncovered evidence of alleged collusion between Russia and the botnet owners.
ATCA said that the botnets were rented for only a short period to boost the number of attacking computers to over a million.
'In a sign of their financial resources, there is evidence that [Russia] rented time from trans-national criminal syndicates on botnets', it added.
Smoke and Mirrors for the Public Eye
With both eyes open, something else may be seen behind the veiled curtain, pretending to investigate NASHI and Young Guard.
Security Officials Mull over Censorship on the Net
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Authorities must have a legal control over the Internet “to step efforts to fight with extremism,” Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Ivan Sydoruk said Thursday in yet another piece of criticism from the silovikis of slack oversight of the net. Human rights activities say that any state control over the Internet will create persecuted “cyberdissidents.” IT specialists argue that censorship in the Internet is next to impossible.
“The Internet is often a place for circulating extremist leaning information,” Ivan Sydoruk told a police conference in Rostov-on-Don on Thursday. “We need to work out an effective system to control the data released there in line with law.”
In another recent anti-Internet statement, Federal Security Service Director Nikolay Partushev called for strict control over the net. “There are currently 5,000 web-site run by extremist organizations and movements,” he said on June 5.
Bush Tells Estonian President He's Worried by Cyber Attacks
From the Moscow Times regarding Estonian President Ilves's visit with President Bush in Washington
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WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush, acknowledging he could stand to "learn a lot" about cyber-security, expressed concern Monday over the high-tech hacking that crippled computer systems in Estonia.
Bush praised Estonia's president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, for sharing information on how to deal with such security breaches.
Estonia suffered cyber attacks against its government and corporate web sites at the hands of Russian hackers last month, in what it says was retribution in a dispute with Moscow over the relocation of a Red Army statue in downtown Tallinn.
The Russian government has denied involvement.
Bush stayed away from the touchy matter, instead focusing on the lesson of vulnerability for the United States.
"Thank you for your clear understanding of the dangers that imposes not only on your country, but mine and others as well," Bush told Ilves after a meeting at the White House.
Bush praised Estonia for contributing troops to the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He briefly noted the latest suicide bombing in Baghdad on Monday, which killed at least 12 people, including a U.S.-allied tribal sheik.
"All the more reason, Mr. President, for us to remain firm and strong as we stand for this young democracy," Bush told Ilves.
Ilves thanked the United States for standing by his country's quest for independence "even in the darkest of times."
Mice, not men the key as Estonian army enters cyber age
A very interesting article regarding Estonia's cyber wars and potential to Establish a NATO center for excellence, recently approved by the POTUS and SECDEF Gates.
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Tallinn - For a top-secret military base, Estonia's centre for cyber-defence looks remarkably like a genteel university. Chairs stand in neat rows in the classrooms, facing blackboards covered in arcane symbols. Vast orange armchairs ring the common room, and in one corner a coffee machine splutters belligerently.
The scene is as far from any fictional secret bunker as could be imagined, but it is a battlefield nonetheless - and one where Estonia (population 1.34 million) punches well above its weight.
"Today, Estonia is an opinion leader. People are looking for answers to cyber threats, and they have started to ask for our advice; we now have to do a lot of work to move from being an opinion leader to being a leader in the field," Tammet said.
Estonia calls for international convention to fight cyber crimes
From International Herald Tribune and AP:
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Estonia's government on Thursday called for an international convention on combatting computer-based attacks like those directed against the Baltic state in late April-early May.
Global ratification of the convention would establish "a strong legal basis to fight cyber crimes," the Economic Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
Signatory countries would cooperate in preventing computer-related crimes and tracking down organizers of cyber attacks.
The Estonian government also approved a number of measures to bolster the country's defenses against such cyber attacks in the future. In the words of Estonian ministers, future attacks "could be directed against the confidentiality of information systems and integrity of data."
The European Union and NATO, of which both Estonia is a member since 2004, expressed their concern about the cyber war waged against the Baltic country.
Hackers descend on Las Vegas for conventions
Apparently Estonia's recent bout with DDoS was a much larger problem than most thought.
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LAS VEGAS: The threat of online data theft is becoming worse as criminals grow increasingly sophisticated at pilfering information from companies, government agencies and consumers, a former White House security adviser said Wednesday.
Influencing much of the discussion at the Black Hat and Defcon conventions are two major computer attacks this year — a well-coordinated strike on the Baltic state of Estonia that crippled the Web sites of banks, media outlets and government agencies, and a data breach at the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores that exposed at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud.
Cyber attacks not the work of the Kremlin
Computerworld's recent article from Black Hat: "Estonia attacks an example of online rioting. There are lessons for companies that must deal with large-scale Web attacks."
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A series of online attacks that seriously disrupted Web sites belonging to several banking and government organizations in Estonia earlier this year may have been perpetrated by a loosely organized, politically motivated online mob, a security researcher suggested today at the Black Hat 2007 conference.
The attacks hold several lessons about how large-scale Internet attacks can unfold and the responses that may be needed to deal with them, said Gadi Evron, security evangelist for Israel-based Beyond Security. "The use of the Internet to create an online mob has proven itself and will likely receive more attention in the future," following the Estonia attacks, said Evron, who wrote a postmortem report on the incident for the Estonian CERT.
Initial media reports suggested that the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks may have been organized by the Russian government in retaliation for Estonia's decision to move the statue. The reality, however, is that the attacks were carried on by an unknown number of Russian individuals with active support from security-savvy people in the Russian blogosphere, Evron said.
Many Russian-language blogs offered simple and detailed instructions to their readers on how to overload Estonian Web sites using "ping" commands, for instance, Evron said. The bloggers also kept updating their advice as Estonian incident responders started defending against the initial attacks.
Estonia issues arrest warrant for Russian citizen
TALLINN, Estonia: Estonia has issued a European arrest warrant for a Russian citizen accused of calling for the overthrow of the Baltic country's government via the Internet.
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A 23-year-old Moscow resident identified only as Aleksei was charged with "inciting the violent disruption of Estonian independence" in late April.
Estonian state prosecution spokeswoman Kristiina Herodes said prosecutors were forced to seek the European arrest warrant, after Russian authorities refused assistance in bringing Aleksei to trial in Estonia.
Authorities allege he spread Internet messages on April 28 calling ethnic Russians living in Estonia to join a violent coup d'etat — under the banner of the "Russian Resistance Army" — and topple Estonia's government.
A joint group of Estonian authorities, including security police and Internet experts, were able to track down the man with the help of IP addresses and his home Web page, Herodes said.