Slashdot Mirror
Expert Dissects Estonian Cyber-War
Stony Stevenson points out an iTnews summary of a security researcher's account of the cyber-attacks on Estonia last year. The full report [PDF] is also available. We've discussed this internet-based conflict in the past. From the report:
"In the days leading up to the attack, numerous clues pointed to a large-scale operation that was being planned online. Russian-language Internet discussion forums were abuzz with preparations for an online attack. Three days before the expected onslaught, Estonia planned to release the news of the coming strike in hopes that European media attention would oblige the EU to pressure the Kremlin to intervene, whether or not the attacks emanated from the Russian authorities."
The Internet as it stands today is a consequences-free zone. Nations can't "do" anything about such attacks because there are no effective ways to conclusively track them back to individuals or even organizations. Even if there was, how much is some official going to do in China when handed a report of some kind of attack against some other country's computers?
As continuously pointed out, an IP address does not identify an individual. Today, with today's laws, unless you leave clear tracks to other forms of identification just having an IP address does not connect a deed with an individual. You can threaten, harass, and, yes, DDoS, with impunity. I don't see this changing anytime soon.
This pretty much means that any real online presence lives or dies by how much they draw attention to themselves and how motivated the attackers are. Estonia sounds like they were particularly vulnerable with little in the way of offline backup for basic services. This is not true in the US today, but it could easily be that way tomorrow. Could a group of disgruntled folks cripple government services in the US? Maybe. Given the current climate with laws, enforcement and international cooperation, there is no way that anyone outside the US would ever be prosecuted unless they bragged about what they did.
Cyber attacks are dangerous (impact on Estonia described). The are too easy to organize (Russian blogs described). We need draconian laws to punish offenders. Russia (and other poorly governed countries) can't be relied upon to establish draconian laws. We must lead the way! (and probably force everyone else to follow).
You will also no doubt recall that these were found infected by malware that had been transferred from unclassified networks. What difference does an airwall make when it's being run by an airhead?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I never really understand when someone gets enraged when a different country does something considered an insult by another. These aren't personal insults. They're insults to a government, often a past government. Ie, US "patriots" foaming at the mouth when France won't be a lap dog, or someplace objects to expanding military bases, etc. It makes no sense.
For Estonia, it's their country, they can do whatever they want with some statue that they never asked for. If moving the statue means anything to the Russians, it should have meant some sort of introspection about why they're not seen as the glorious savior of eastern europe. Why the anger? I honestly don't understand it, except that most people growing up in the Soviet Union were fed propaganda and haven't learned to see things from other viewpoints.
Such as the viewpoint that this statue was never seen as a "war memorial" to the ethnic Estonians, but was a symbol of occupation and Russification, and had become a flash point for conflicts. If anyone was insulted, it was the Soviet occupation. Do modern Russians still fondly love the Stalinist era? Should Germans become enranged if someone tears down a memorial put up by Nazis? Do Russians still honestly believe Estonia is fascist, that they loved the Nazis? Given a choice between Stalinist brutality and Nazi brutality, why are Russians still pissed off that they weren't the first choice?
And yes, I am equating Stalinist excesses to Nazi excesses. I don't believe praising the lesser of two evils.
Oh, and you really do not need any sort of government backing to mount a pretty massive cyber-attack on Estonia here. Most Russians hate the Baltic countries (thanks to all the Russian TV propaganda about suppressing the Russian minority and glorious marches of SS veterans that happen there), there are plenty of semi-serious jokes about "our tanks in Riga (/Vilnius/Tallinn)" etc. All that was needed was a spark, and the events in Estonia gave it. I would be surprised if the "youth org" members didn't heavily participate (for one, because they are strongly brainwashed), or that there was tacit government support for that. But it's hardly organized by the Russian state as a whole.
It was only after the war that the Nazis gained the association of being the ultimate evil of all time. The horrors of the holocaust were not very well known at the time, and rumors of it were often dismissed as exaggeration. At the time of the war, the conflict was probably viewed as yet another chapter in an age old tug of war between super powers in Europe.
There are countries all over Europe who were occupied by the Nazis and who had some population willingly side with the Nazis. Are modern Russians all angry with them also? What are the feelings about Finland, which had a war against the USSR with Nazi support?
A customer of mine (small college) reported issues with their (smallish) internet pipe one evening. Something appeared to be hogging a bunch of bandwidth.
Long story short, a sniffer revealed a huge amount of traffic coming from a particular student machine directed at an IP address ARIN showed as belonging to Estonia's government. We said huh, wierd and shut down his switch port and went to bed.
Of course we found out a little bit later about the attacks. I don't have the sniffer traces anymore.