June 15, 2007 4:00 AM PDT
Perspective: Coming attractions for history's first cyberwar
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Cyberattack in Estonia--what it really means
May 29, 2007
We don't know whether Tony gets whacked or whether it was a dream sequence--or even both. I suppose that was as it should be, as it left us guessing in true whodunit fashion about motive.
Another fascinating whodunit novella is playing out a few time zones away from here, in the nation of Estonia--but this one is for real. In case you missed the news, here's the headline version: in late April, Estonia's government moved a Soviet-era war memorial commemorating an unknown Russian killed fighting the Germans.
Needless to say, this went over like a lead balloon with neighboring Russia, which still hails the Red Army for its role defeating the Nazis.
Not so in Estonia, which spent nearly a half century under communist rule. The country decoupled from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has not looked back. The only people upset about the change in letterhead are the country's ethnic Russians.
So it was that Estonia's decision triggered rioting among that same population. One man was killed, and 153 people were injured. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin very publicly criticized Estonia, and demonstrators blockaded the Estonian embassy.
Up until that point, the story line played out with few surprises. Eastern Europe is still a cauldron of conflicting nationalistic passions where there's not always a shared, agreed-upon narrative of the postwar era.
Then things got squirrelly.
Despite their nation's small size, Estonia's 1.4 million people represent one of the most wired populations in the world. The country's parliament actually declared Internet access to be a basic human right. Unlike the United States, which seems congenitally unable to resolve the mystery of e-voting, Estonia has been using the Internet to elect representatives since 2005.
So if some group wanted to really wreak havoc, how better than to strike at Estonia's Internet infrastructure? And that's what happened.
Shortly after the government announced its decision, Estonia's Web sites--including those of government ministries and the prime minister's Reform Party--came under attack in a distributed denial-of-service attack that lasted for weeks.
Russia rejected accusations that the government had anything to do with the cyberbarrage. In an earlier interview with CNET News.com, Jose Nazario, a security researcher from Arbor Networks, suggested that the 100- to 200-megabit-per-second size of the attack waves was on the low side of the average DOS attack.
Whoever it was, though, knew what they were doing. Things got so bad that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was invited to provide technical assistance to help shore up Estonia's defenses. A NATO spokesman had it right when he said that in the 21st century, it's not just going to be about tanks and planes. What he didn't say was whether this represented the opening shots of history's first cyberwar.
I put that question to Dorothy Denning, an expert in terrorism and cybersecurity at the Naval Postgraduate School. She thinks it's more likely that this particular episode was the work of protesters who wanted to register their unhappiness.
"Governments do try to keep collateral damage to a minimum, and this looks to have been the work of people where it's obvious where their sympathies lie," she said. "There's too much collateral damage."
In that respect, this most recent DOS attack resembles cyberconflicts that have broken out between hackers in India and Pakistan, as well as between sympathizers of Israel and the Palestinians. But Denning also noted that national-security experts in our country are likely to take away at least one lesson from what's going on in Estonia.
"It's taken cyberprotest to the next level," Denning said. "It can happen here or to any country where people are unhappy. These were serious attacks which lasted a long time. And it proves you need defenses."
She's absolutely right, but so far, cybersecurity remains honored more in the breach than in the observance by the federal government. For all its exhortations to beef up homeland security, the Bush administration still considers this a side show compared with more pressing geopolitical issues.
Maybe so, but they're kidding themselves if they don't think that this chicken is one day going to come home to roost. That's when I won't be the only person with a blue moon in his eye.
Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.
See more CNET content tagged:
denial of service, government, Russia, history
not only is the second internet being built incase the first one gets attaced, infact the government plan to eventually switch everyone over to the second internet because its being built with security in mind.
the problem with the first internet is, its not very secure and from the governments point of view not very well designed for counter-terrorism eaves dropping.
new protocols and processes are being developed on the new internet which will be exclusively used by the u.s government until the roll out in 20 to 30 years time, although the u.s government will cut that public release timeline if a major breakdown of the internet occurs through cyberattacks.
in high level meetings with corporate america officials, technical details of how to let corporate security experts switch over to the highly classified second internet project in time of national emergency was disclosed.
all parties involved in talks have signed documents to stop them talking about it in pub;lic, although details of the second internet have been obtained by international hackers, who have become firmilar with the project.
documents containing the plans for the second internet were downloaded off government computer networks by underground hackers, and therefore the information regarding the second internet project have been leaked.
it is unclear how far on in development the project is, due to the papers obtained by illegal authorised entry into u.s government networks was not marked as the same time period as when the papers of the plans were obtained by the illegal means of international hackers.
in private the government are trying not to talk about cyber attacks too much so not to over talk the risk to national government and e-commerce interests, but in truth they are only too aware of the threat to their own communications and anti missle systems, therefore a second highly classified internet was advised by top level whitehosue advisors who have consulted with cyber security experts in classified meetings with government officals.
the saftey net known as the second internet may save america from certain national economic disaster and attacks to u.s army defense systems in a time of real world war when nuclear and cyber attacks are likely to happen.
Sounds great if you are a total idiot! When will people learn that the only terrorist to worry about are politicians and CEO's.
- cyberwar
- by Martin Ozolin June 18, 2007 2:27 PM PDT
- Open, positive, pro-active behaviour was consistently scorned and punished by soviet era centralized government, well known for silencing opposition. On the other hand, bad news, or disinformation is abundant for the huge, "minority" language group in the baltics. Anybody wishing to learn Russian can forget about finding a pronouncing dictionary with a roman alphabet.
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