Tuesday, May 29, 2007

kind of important, worth noting

Digital Fears Emerge After Data Siege in Estonia

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

TALLINN, Estonia, May 24 - When Estonian authorities began removing a
bronze statue of a World War II-era Soviet soldier from a park in this
bustling Baltic seaport last month, they expected violent street
protests
by Estonians of Russian descent.

They also knew from experience that "if there are fights on the street,
there are going to be fights on the Internet," said Hillar Aarelaid, the
director of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team. After all, for
people here the Internet is almost as vital as running water; it is used
routinely to vote, file their taxes, and, with their cellphones, to
shop or
pay for parking.

What followed was what some here describe as the first war in
cyberspace, a
monthlong campaign that has forced Estonian authorities to defend their
pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood that they say was set off by
orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation for the
removal
of the statue... "This may well turn out to be a watershed in terms of
widespread awareness of the vulnerability of modern society," said
Linton
Wells II, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for
networks
and information integration at the Pentagon.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/

29estonia.html

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/ypn4lo

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