Increasingly it seems that broad cyber-attacks are becoming part and parcel of modern conflict. Russia started it in June 2007, with a coordinated DDOS attack on Estonian websites in retaliation for Estonia's relocation of a Soviet War Memorial.
During last week's military conflict between Russia and Georgia, Russian hackers purportedly took down the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Georgian PM Mikhail Saakashvili's personal website was moved to a new hosting site in the US to avoid defacement by Russian saboteurs.
According to Jart Armin, a blog editor tracking digital security issues in Eastern Europe, the multi-pronged attack on Georgia was led by a known Russian criminal network also involved in credit card theft, etc. Slashdot coverage is here. The network re-routed traffic going to Georgian government sites via Russian and Turkish servers and then blocked it. According to the Telegraph, the Georgian sites came back up only when Germany intervened and re-routed the blocked traffic.
This sure is a new era.
Pic credit: spacewar.com.
Very interesting Max. The angry Russian bear might end up creating all sorts of new security and privacy issues. By playing our private lives out in public on the web we expose ourselves - not least by exposing our friends.
Not sure how significant this is though :)
Posted by: Nic Brisbourne | August 18, 2008 at 08:49