Is Cyber a new warfare? Debate (catch all)

[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.

[SWJED]

22 May Washington Post commentary - For Estonia and NATO, A New Kind of War by Anne Applebaum.

And now for a quick quiz: A European country -- a member in good standing of NATO and the European Union -- has recently suffered multiple attacks on its institutions. Can you (a) name the country, (b) describe the attacks and (c) explain what NATO is doing in response?

If you can't, don't worry: NATO itself doesn't quite know what it is doing about the attacks, despite the alliance's treaty, which declares that an armed attack on one of its members is "an attack against them all." The country is Estonia -- a very small, very recent member of NATO; the attacks are taking place in cyberspace; and while the perpetrators aren't exactly unknown, their identities can't be proved either...

[kaur]

"Web Sites Under Attack in a Murky War"

Estonia has created a stir with its accusations that Kremlin-based hackers targeted government web sites. But it is not alone in grappling with cyber attacks.

Hackers in recent months have targeted outspoken pro-Kremlin youth groups, opposition forces, ultranationalist organizations and media outlets, crashing their web sites with what is known as Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, attacks -- the same type of attack that Estonia says was launched against its sites.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/storie...05/24/003.html

This article is accessible only today, 24.05.2007

[kaur]

Column from last Economist "Cyberwarfare update."

Called a “distributed denial of service” (DDOS) attack, this at its peak involved more than 1m computers, creating traffic equivalent to 5,000 clicks per second on some targets. Some parts were highly co-ordinated—stopping precisely at midnight, for example. Frank Cilluffo, an expert formerly at the White House, says that the attack's signature suggests that more than one group was at work, with small-time hackers following the initial huge sorties.

http://edwardlucas.blogspot.com/2007...re-update.html