Is Cyber a new warfare? Debate (catch all)

[marct]

Hi Kaur,

Excellent article, thanks for the link.

Based on what has been posted in this thread so far, I wold hazard a guess that this started as an opportunistic attack with the political-symbolic environment being manipulated by the Russians. The Russian State gets plausible deniability and, at the same time, the types of attacks they want - i.e. "non-warfare".

There are some things I want to think through on how this operates but, my current thinking is that this is a form of symbolic warfare that will bite the Russians later one.

Marc

[Stan]

Hi Kaur,

Excellent article, thanks for the link.

Based on what has been posted in this thread so far, I wold hazard a guess that this started as an opportunistic attack with the political-symbolic environment being manipulated by the Russians. The Russian State gets plausible deniability and, at the same time, the types of attacks they want - i.e. "non-warfare".

There are some things I want to think through on how this operates but, my current thinking is that this is a form of symbolic warfare that will bite the Russians later one.

Marc

Hi Marc !
I'll let Kaur answer from his own perspective, but what the Estonian Govt. and LE are saying, this was well planned, executed and financed.

Dmitri is not talking, but based on his 'student' status and relative lack of money, he was living extremely well.

Experts from Nato member states and from the alliance's NCSA unit - "Nato's first line of defence against cyber-terrorism", set up five years ago - were meeting in Seattle in the US when the crisis erupted. A couple of them were rushed to Tallinn.

Another Nato official familiar with the experts' work said it was easy for them, with other organisations and internet providers, to track, trace, and identify the attackers.

That said, NATO may be a touch concerned. Me Thinks !

[Stan]

BBC's 'Have Your Say' wants to know

Are you in Estonia? Do you think that Russia is responsible for the attacks? How well protected are state websites against this form of harassment?

[kaur]

I'd like to use word virtual swarming to describe the activity of opponents that are attacking Estonian servers. At first it looked like volunteer internet riot. Word was spread in internet forums to attack Estonian servers. For people without special knowledge, there were given special instructions how to do this. They did this as volunteers and binding force was the idea that there was huge insult against Russian soul by Estonian government. They attacked from every direction. The sites that were attacked were first not so important. At present they are useing same method, but calibre of their weapon is much bigger (number of hijacked computers is very big). How have they acquired this, it is interesting to know. It is hard to belive that the number of volunteers has grown because it seems that situation is at least here is calm (Estonian ambassador is also back in Russia again and Russian media is quiet) and momentum is gone. Who has such capacity to attack so intensely? Now they are targeting important targets, Estonian banks. e-banking is very popular here, so people are really pissed off.

Here is BBC story "Estonia hit by 'Moscow cyber war'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6665145.stm

It seems that opponent has red this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Warfare

[Stan]

"A Kremlin spokesman on May 17 refuted allegations of Moscow's involvement in the recent large-scale cyber attacks on Estonia’s government and private-sector websites that have been continuing since late April.

Deputy press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said Russia can in no way be involved in cyber-terrorism and all claims to the contrary are an absolute lie, BBC Russian Service reported.

The official website of the Russian president is the target of hundreds of attacks every day, Peskov countered, and IP addresses of the computers from which they come implicate many countries in all parts of the world."

Meanwhile, Estonia’s national security police have said that the nation’s Constitution Party, which ran but did not win any seats in the March parliamentary elections, is managed and financed by the Russian authorities

[SWJED]

19 May Washington Times - Cyber Assaults on Estonia Typify a New Battle Tactic by Peter Finn.

This small Baltic country, one of the most wired societies in Europe, has been subject in recent weeks to massive and coordinated cyber attacks on Web sites of the government, banks, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and news organizations, according to Estonian and foreign officials here.

Computer security specialists here call it an unprecedented assault on the public and private electronic infrastructure of a state. They say it is originating in Russia, which is angry over Estonia's recent relocation of a Soviet war memorial. Russian officials deny any government involvement

The NATO alliance and the European Union have rushed information technology specialists to Estonia to observe and assist during the attacks, which have disrupted government e-mail and led financial institutions to shut down online banking...

[kaur]

Estonian embassy's attackers' modus operandi.

Some 15,000 volunteers donned red jackets, with putin's communicators emblazoned on the back, and spread out across Moscow distributing brochures and 10,000 specially made SIM cards for mobile phones. The cards allowed users to send text messages to the Kremlin—to be answered promptly by Nashi volunteers. Recipients were also instructed to use the cards to report any signs of an incipient Orange revolution. In that event, the cards would instantly relay text-message instructions on what to do and where to rally. "We explained to Muscovites that we should all be prepared for the pro-Western revolution, funded by America," says Nashi activist Tatyana Matiash, 22. "People must know what to do to save their motherland in case their radio and TV stop working."

I'd like to speculate that this is the way to disperse cyber attach methods against enemy via internet among memebers and symphatizers.

Not to be outdone by Nashi, the Chelyabinsk chapter of the Young Guards recently staged a training session in how to combat a possible Orange revolution in their city. A hundred volunteers with orange bandannas pretended to storm the local television station; Young Guards mobilized to defend it. The day ended with Guards wielding baseball bats to smash up an "Orange" tent camp, much like that erected on Maidan Square in Kiev two years ago.

They are lectured by top bureaucrats and politicians, including Deputy Defense Minister Yury Baluyevsky and the thuggish Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov—honored as a "Young Politician of the Year" at last year's Nashi congress.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18753946...wsweek/page/2/

[Stan]

The recent attacks on Estonia's internet infrastructure have led to speculation that Estonia may become NATO's cyber warfare test bench. A Defense Ministry IT expert said plans for establishing a NATO cyber defense center in Estonia had existed for over a year and suggested that recent attacks should be considered cyber terrorism. "They should be clearly designated as such because they were instigated by political propaganda which is how terrorist groups find new members." There are plans to begin training Estonian cyber sleuths by the end of 2007.