Is Cyber a new warfare? Debate (catch all)

[selil]

Hey Sam !



I've been spending too much time at your blog reading about biker chicks (ahem) bikers and didn't see the posts on cyber superpowers

During my recent trip to Tenerife there were some Estonian IT guys at our hotel, and I recall one morning hearing them talk about the relatively stone-age state of IT in the Canaries.

Would you shoot me the link to your article please ?

Regards, Stan

Let me see if I can find it. I'll post it here or on my BLOG....

[marct]

Austin Bay has an interesting article at RCP which uses the Estonian Cyberwar as a case study.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...yberspace.html

[Stan]

Birmingham InfraGard June 2007

NashiHackers
Konstantin Goloskov, a Nashiactivist, told the Rosbaltnews agency on May 2 that he personally took part in cyber-attacks on Estonian websites. But he denied that Moscow state offices were used. The hacking, he said, was done from the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester.

How to respond?
"There is a discussion over how cyber aggression should fit into current law and whether a conventional attack would be suitable retaliation”
(Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at the SANS Institute) quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

Putin on Estonia
The May 25th Moscow Times explains Putin’s thoughts on Estonia
–Estonians betrayed his father’s NKVD sabatogeunit to the Germans. (24 of the 28 were captured, his father escaped, being carried across a frozen river, badly injured, under German fire)

–The Soviets explained in 1989 to the Estonians that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 did not reflect current Soviet policy. “Do you think we must do this every year?”he asked an Estonian reporter, mocking her Russian accent.
–The article makes it clear that Putinsees the removal of the statue as an insult to his father and other Russians who fought the Nazis in Estonia.

Youth organizations familiar with Cyber War tactics
•pro-Kremlin groups, such as Nashi, Young Russia, and Mestniye, and ultranationalist youth organizations, like The Other Russia and Movement Against Illegal Immigration have all had their websites attacked in the past few months.
•Alexander Kalugin, a spokesman for Young Russia, said his group was DDOSedfor six hours in March, saying the attack was by Estonians angered at their protests.
•His group burned Estonian banners and trampled an effigy of the Estonian president, which led to the cyber retaliation.

An interesting and very detailed recap. 31 page pdf at the link.

[kaur]

Here is article called "Nationality: Cyber-Russian" that may very well explain the human terrain in cyber space variable and cyber war against Estonia.

http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/numbers/9/716.html

[Stan]

4 Suspects Go on Trial Over Riots in Estonia

Estonian news providers reported renewed disruption to their services over the weekend before the opening of the trial.

Estonia's computer emergency response team said the Friday incident was a denial of service attack from machines around the world.

The suspects are Dmitry Linter, Maxim Reva, Dmitry Klensky and Mark Sirik. They pleaded not guilty.

The charges said the first three were leaders of a Russian activist group in Estonia, Night Watch, while the fourth is head of the Estonian chapter of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi.

The unrest in April coincided with attacks on Estonian web sites, some of which the authorities said they traced to Russian government servers. Russia has denied any involvement.

Prosecutors say the rioting was planned well in advance and was not a spontaneous reaction to the memorial's removal. They say the defendants began plotting in mid-2006, when the government first discussed the memorial. Prosecutors also accuse the Russian government of providing them with financial support, a charge that Russian authorities have denied.

[kaur]

A cyber conflict differs greatly from what we typically associate with a war. There are no bombs bursting or gun fire. It is a silent conflict that is hard to notice until you try an electronic transaction. When we evaluate the progress of a war today we measure death and physical destruction. While there can be minor physical destruction in a cyber war, the political economic and financial implications are the primary measures of success.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/....html#comments

[Stan]

20-year-old ethnic Russian student Dmitri Galushkevich, has been fined for participating in last year's cyberattack against Estonian Web sites.

Dmitri Galushkevich used his home PC to launched a denial-of-service attack that knocked down the Web site for the political party of Estonia's prime minister for several days, said Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman for the Northeast District Prosecutor's Office in Tallinn...Galushkevich must pay 17,500 kroons (US$1,642).

"He [Galushkevich] wanted to show that he was against the removal of this bronze statue," Maesalu. "At the moment, we don't have any other suspects."

'We Traced the Cyberwar -- It's Coming From Inside the Country!'

You'll recall that Estonia blamed the Russian government for last spring's DDoS attacks, and even considered invoking NATO Article 5 to marshal a multinational military counter attack against Russia -- a perfectly reasonable response to a bunch of websites being overloaded with unwanted traffic. Wired magazine sent a reporter to Russia to try and track down the culprits, but Vladimir Putin's ruthless cyber brigade proved elusive.

And so it comes as quite a shock to THREAT LEVEL to learn that the attacker convicted today isn't a member of the Russian military, nor is he an embittered cyber warrior in Putin's secret service. He doesn't even live in Russia. He's an ethnic Russian who lives in Estonia, who was pissed off over that whole statue thing.

[selil]

The fact it was a student and a low level student at that. The fact it was a non-state actor is central to a theme that I'm kicking around.

Here are a few links.

Why States Need an International Law for Information Operations.

CIA Admits Cyberattacks Blacked Out Cities.

E-war rules of engagement.

[Stan]

Computer Crime Research Center

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Estonia called on the European Union on Wednesday to make cyber attacks a criminal offense to stop Internet users from freezing public and private Web sites for political revenge.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said he believed the Russian government was behind an online attack on Estonia over its decision to move a Red Army monument from a square in the capital Tallin. Russia has denied any involvement.

"Russian officials boasted about having done it (cyber attacks) afterwards -- one in a recent interview a month and a half ago saying we can do much more damage if we wanted to," he told Reuters in an interview.

"We now have a much clearer understanding that we need to have a legislative basis for prosecuting cyber crime because it is a crime," Ilves said.

"That is something we are pushing for within the European Union and within NATO as well, where we can. It's almost by definition a cross-border crime," Ilves added.

"The UK has good legislation and the United States has good legislation. France has better than most and the rest of the EU does not really have this kind of legislation," Ilves said.

[kaur]

Specifically, Mr. Scheunemann said Mr. McCain was referring to an alleged Russian-led cyber attack on Estonia earlier this month, when Estonian government and private Web sites were frozen in response to a decision to remove a monument to the Red Army in the Estonian capital, Tallin. Estonia's president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, on March 12 asked the European Union to make cyber attacks a class of crimes in response to what he said was Russia's retaliation for removing the Red Army monument.

http://www2.nysun.com/article/73750?page_no=2

[Stan]

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
The Guardian, Monday April 7 2008

Estonia is bracing itself for a repeat of the internet attacks which nearly brought its government to a halt last year, the Guardian has learned.

With the anniversary of the attacks looming, senior officials are preparing for a repeat performance. One official said there had been many smaller attempts to hack into government systems during the last 12 months but they were not as organised or successful as last year's attacks.

A 20-year-old Estonian, Dmitri Galushkevich, has been arrested in relation to those attacks and was fined £880. But Estonian sources say the strikes originated largely from across the country's eastern border.

Those attacks prompted speculation that computer hacking was being widely used as a weapon, not just espionage. Such feelings were compounded when it emerged that another group of organised hackers - known by investigators as Titan Rain and believed to operate from inside China - had launched a series of strikes against western governments.

[Stan]

Apr 09, 2008
In cooperation with NATO

After last April saw the removal of a Soviet memorial in Tallinn, and the subsequent protests and cyber attacks that ensued, Estonia is ready for a repeat.

Last month Suleyman Anil, NATO’s computer incident response center head, stated that: "We have seen more of these attacks and we don't think this problem will disappear soon. Unless globally supported measures are taken, it can become a global problem,"

The attacks last year nearly brought the government to a halt and public services were severely immobilized.

Experts believe that despite an arrest made last year of an Estonian-Russian, the attacks originate from across the border in Russia.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest last week, plans for cyber defense in Estonia were discussed as well as plans for a permanent defense center.

Estonia is one of the cyber leaders of Europe, holding its first online election in 2005.

[Stan]

TALLINN- Days before the May 9th Russian Victory Day celebrations, members of the 10th parliament of Estonia were hit with a flurry of cyber attacks from Russia.

Marko Mihkelson, a member of the Estonian Parliament from the Pro Patria and Res Publica faction, said members of the previous Estonian parliament fell victime to the attacks on Sunday.

"E-mail messages with the .ru domain name speak to us about the Bronze Soldier, Victory Day, Estonia's "pro-fascism" and other well-known repertory. A set of e-mail addresses of the members of our 10th parliament is widely circulating in the Russian cyberspace, and so it is not very difficult to launch such an attack," Mihkelson wrote in his blog.

He said that contrary to last year's spam attacks, when the contents of the e-mails were largely the same, Sunday's texts were different although with the same undertone. "The next days until May 9 will show whether we have to do with some kind of a wider action or the effort gradually peters out," Mihkelson said.

Dozens of members of parliament mainly from the Reform Party and the conservative Pro Patria and Res Publica Union received such e-mails during last year's April disturbances and a few months earlier, after the parliament passed an act on prohibited structures.

For ethnic Estonians the monument symbolizes the nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation of Estonia, while many Russian-speakers see it only as a symbol of the Russian role in the liberation of Europe of Nazis in World War II.

[Stan]

with the interpretation of the events of World War II and the policy in the Baltic countries promised a cyber war against Baltic nations and illustrating the Baltics' web pages with five-pointed stars.

Russian hackers promise an uniform attack against Baltics

The actions of the Baltic countries that are trying to re-write the history and delete the past events form the memories of their residents have crossed all reasonable limits, delfi.ee mediates hackers’ letter in Russian newspaper Smena.

According to the hackers’ plan, the layout of Baltic countries’ web pages will be changed. The visitors will see large red stars, photos of the soldiers that liberated Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius from the fascists and calls of not forgetting the past.

[Stan]

with the interpretation of the events of World War II and the policy in the Baltic countries promised a cyber war against Baltic nations and illustrating the Baltics' web pages with five-pointed stars.

Russian hackers promise an uniform attack against Baltics

Cyber attack on Lithuanian internet pages

The weekend cyber attack, which vandalized Lithuanian internet pages with soviet symbols, is only the top (sic) of the iceberg, IT specialists claim.

Gintautas Svedas, head of the company SATi specializing in IT security area, thinks that currently the number of real breaks in is much higher. "Serious cyber criminals always strive to remain unnoticed and simply want to secretly use the data from the victim"s computer as well as to control it," Svedas claims.

According to the data presented by the Connection Regulation Service (RRT), cyber criminals damaged the operation of over 300 Lithuanian internet portals. Last spring cyber attacks were performed in Estonia.

[cabanab]

Can anyone tell me why in Buddha's name would NATO put their Computer Incident Response Command in Estonia after their cyber hit from Russia, ok now wait, alledgedly Russia?
Also, is there any truth in the matter that Georgia was going to invoke Article 5(I think) of the NATO Charter when they got hit by again, alledgedly Russia?

Thanks, this is my first post.

[Ken White]

I'm sure someone with knowledge of the events will be along to discuss your question shortly. in the meantime, why not go here: LINK and tag onto the thread there to tell us a little about yourself and your background and interests. You can scroll up a few messages to get a flavor of what others have said.

You can also check out this thread related to your query: LINK. Link is to last message in the thread, you can go to the first and read the thread.

[Stan]

Welcome to the Council !
Please do take the time to introduce yourself as Ken requested.

Can anyone tell me why in Buddha's name would NATO put their Computer Incident Response Command in Estonia after their cyber hit from Russia, ok now wait, alledgedly Russia?

First and foremost, it is not a computer incident response command. Rather, it is affectionately known as NATO's Center of Cyber Warfare Excellence. So how did Estonia end up with the Center ?

Following the 2007 attacks on Estonia's infrastructure and subsequent responses, NATO officials dealing with the issue indicated that Estonia's response was so effective as to preclude the need for drastic NATO action. Recognizing said NATO experts learned at least as much as they had contributed in terms of advice. With that, Estonia offered her services and recommended the creation of the Center for Excellence.

Unless you have information to the contrary, no other NATO member State has offered to create and host such a Center.

Also, is there any truth in the matter that Georgia was going to invoke Article 5(I think) of the NATO Charter when they got hit by again, alledgedly Russia?

Please take a moment and read:
The North Atlantic Treaty
Washington D.C. - 4 April 1949.

Thanks, this is my first post.

Enough Said

Regards, Stan

[cabanab]

Thanks for this info. I guess I have some heavy reading for the weekend. Finally had a few moments to go back in the thread. Look forward to being here more often.

[Stan]

Thanks for this info. I guess I have some heavy reading for the weekend. Finally had a few moments to go back in the thread. Look forward to being here more often.

Sounds good !
Please make your 3rd post an intro as Ken has requested.

Regards, Stan