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Gremlins from the
Kremlin
First Appearance
of the Cyber-Front
Six decades ago, Russian occupiers in Estonia
erected a large statue of a Russian soldier that stood in the center of
Tallinn. Last month, Estonia removed it to a quiet cemetery on the edge
of town. This caused a dispute between native Estonians on one side,
Russia and Russian-speaking residents of Estonia on the other. Russians
regarded the statue as a symbol of liberation from Nazi Germany.
Estonians saw a symbol of Soviet occupation.
When word of the overnight removal of the statue
spread, crowds gathered and the ethnic Russian residents of Estonia
demonstrated. More than a thousand people were arrested when the
demonstrations got out of hand. One hundred people were injured. One
person was killed.
In Moscow, meanwhile, the Russian government
expressed outrage over what they considered an insult to the memory of
Soviet soldiers who perished in the Second World War. The government
also felt some responsibility for the
nearly three out of ten Estonians who are native Russian speakers.
The Russian minority largely regards itself as Estonian, although more
than half do not yet have Estonian citizenship. Most of the rest are
stateless, though some choose Russian citizenship.
Estonia possessed core ingredients for violent
political disruption: a large unhappy minority, a meddlesome outside
power, and a flash point -- the removal of the statue. Similar
situations have occurred throughout history. There would be nothing
noteworthy about this one except for the emergence of something that has
never been seen before. The local dispute over a statue in Tallinn,
Estonia, has unveiled the cyber-front.
The United States and NATO have been rushing
computer experts to the cyber-front over the last several days. Estonia
has been rocked by repeated bombings; not the kind we normally think of,
not the messy kind that leave piles of concrete, rebar, debris and body
parts, but a clean, stealthy, electric and potentially deadly kind.
Estonia is one of the most “wired” countries in Europe and
proudly refers to itself as “E-stonia.” It has pioneered the
development of so-called “e-government” with a vibrant online presence.
Unfortunately, Estonia’s reliance on its proud accomplishment mirrors
its vulnerability.
Shortly after the removal of the statue,
concentrated “denial of service” attacks
hit the following entities in Estonia:
·
the Estonian presidency and its parliament;
·
almost all of the country's government ministries;
·
political parties;
·
three of the country's six big news organizations;
·
two of the biggest banks; and firms specializing in
communications.
Denial of service attacks involve a bombardment of
email that paralyzes a computer or computer system. It is not a new
tactic. The newness is in the identity of the one who employs the
tactic: the nation of Russia.
Urmas Paet, the Estonian Foreign Minister,
told the Times of London that Moscow was behind the denial of
service attacks. "When there are attacks coming from official IP
addresses of Russian authorities and they are attacking not only our
websites but our mobile phone network and our rescue service network,
then it is already very dangerous," he said. "The largest part of these
attacks are coming from Russia and from official servers of the
authorities of Russia."
Russian authorities deny the poisoning – I mean cyber
attack.
NATO has rushed top cyber-terror experts to Tallinn. "This is an
operational security issue, something we're taking very seriously," a
NATO official told
The Guardian. "It goes to the heart of the alliance's modus
operandi."
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also
expressed concern.
"Does this have a security
implication? Yes, it does have a security implication. Is it relevant
for NATO? Yes, it is relevant for NATO. It is a subject which I am
afraid will stay on the political agenda in the times to come," he
added.
It will also be on the war agenda. Resilient little Estonia might be
able to shake off what most Estonians regard as inconvenience, but that
will not be the case for larger, more complex societies. As blogger
Shel Israel points out, these are the primitive days of
cyber-warfare. “If you let your imagination wander for just a bit,” he
writes, “you can see a very frightening scenario unfolding. Picture the
shuffling of personal, medical and financial data records exonerating
criminals and tainting citizens above suspicion. Picture the corruption
of IRS data, the mixing of hospital prescriptions between patients, the
calling up of police and fire resources, the destruction of email and so
on.”
The Estonian cyber-attacks have not received a lot of comment in
American media, but Europeans are paying close attention. Perhaps they
are beginning to realize something that could take a while to sink in:
the Apocalypse may have a new Horseman.
© May 25, 2007 by Mike Tully |
