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Russia and Georgia Engaged In a Cyberwar

doctorfaustus writes "I first picked this up in bits and pieces last week off Daily Rotation. A more in-depth story is available at ZDNet, which reports 'a week's worth of speculations around Russian Internet forums have finally materialized into a coordinated cyber attack against Georgia's Internet infrastructure. The attacks have already managed to compromise several government web sites, with continuing DDoS attacks against numerous other Georgian government sites, prompting the government to switch to hosting locations to the US, with Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs undertaking a desperate step in order to disseminate real-time information by moving to a Blogspot account.' There is a question whether the computer work is being done by the Russian military or others. ZDNet's story offers further analysis of the attacks themselves and their origins. Some pretty good reporting." And reader redbu11 contributes the news that Georgia seems to be censoring access to all Russian websites, as confirmed by a Georgian looking glass/nslookup tool. The access is blocked on DNS level (Italy censored the Pirate Bay in the same way). Here are a couple of screenshots (in a language other than English) as of Aug 12th 5:40 pm: www.linux.ru nslookup — FAIL, www.cnn.com nslookup — OK.

ComputerWorld guy CWmike adds "In an intriguing cyberalliance, two Estonian computer experts are heading to Georgia to keep the country's networks running amid an intense military confrontation with Russia. Poland has lent space on its president's Web page for Georgia to post updates on its ongoing conflict with Russia. Estonia is also now hosting Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site."

7 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Poor Atlanta... by polyomninym · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was just too dang hot for them to see it coming.

  2. Well, that's a relief by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard all this talk about a war between Russia and Georgia and got kind of anxious, but itturns out it's just a cyberwar. The media really should stop sensationalizing these things like that.

  3. Re:You know what's great about Soviet Georgia? by baldass_newbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not as many white supremacists morons, either.

    I don't know, dude. This is the Caucasus we're talking about. Lots of Caucasians there.

    --
    The opposite of progress is congress
  4. In Soviet Russia... by scubamage · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...service denies you!

  5. Re:let it loose! by beckerist · · Score: 5, Funny

    hmm...Russia....RED hat hackers?!? ehh? ehhh?? get it?!

  6. Re:let it loose! by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    We need a "hat colour" for a war hacker. This will become a lot more common in the information age.

    Any takes on a good colour?

    Digital Camo of course. Sheesh, what's your excuse? Your UID isn't THAT high.

  7. CyberWar Weapon by rafaelolg · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why don't russian just link some Georgia's site in slashdot? The chances of service survival after a slashdot rampage are minimal.