August 11, 2007: More details are emerging about the recent Russian Cyber War against Estonia. Earlier this year, tiny Estonia (population 1.3 million), a former component of the Soviet Union, got involved in a nasty, and very public, dispute, with Russia. It was all about moving a war memorial from the center of the capital, to a park in the suburbs. The statue was of a Russia World War II soldier, and it was long resented by Estonians, as a symbol of Russian conquest and occupation. But in Russia, popular opinion painted the Estonians as a bunch of ingrates, not appreciating the sacrifice of Russian soldiers, who had to push German soldiers out of Estonia so that Russian occupation of the country could resume.

The online community in Russia was particularly incensed at the Estonians, and promptly began urging on those who were vandalizing Estonian web sites and carrying out similar mischief. The online community in Russia united to carry out a joint retribution against Estonia. But as the Cyber War attacks continued for weeks, new weapons were employed. Many government and business web sites in Estonia were shut down with more powerful and sophisticated attacks. The later attacks, including custom made viruses inserted into Estonian PCs and servers, bespoke a much higher degree of professionalism. While it's possible that this stuff was the work of volunteers, it also appeared to be the kind of "ammunition" a Russian military Cyber War organization would have in its arsenal.

The Russian government denied any involvement in the Cyber War attacks. But once Estonia called on NATO for support, the Internet based attacks began to abate, and soon stopped. Most Russians were not happy about Estonia recently joining NATO, either. But the Russian government didn't want NATO to decide that the mutual-defense clauses of the treaty applied to Cyber War attacks.

Making unofficial attacks on another country is nothing new. Throughout the Cold War, Russia sponsored terrorist groups around the world, as long as the terrorists were attacking someone the Russians had a dispute with. Until the 19th century, it was common for nations to look the other way as pirates, who they gave clandestine support to, attacked the shipping of other countries.

The vandals who trashed Estonias Internet infrastructure fit both categories. And the Russian government denied everything. That's happened before, elsewhere on the planet. It will happen again, until there are better tools to pin the blame on the people really responsible for the cyber-vandalism. That may take a while, if ever.