This development in recent weeks has been interesting.

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.

Expected, yes -- but the decision to remove the statue would be no different than one to remove a statue of the conquering Japanese from the streets of Manila.

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.

The Estonians assert that an Internet address involved in the attacks belonged to an official who works in the administration of RussiaÂ’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.

The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attacks, which came close to shutting down the countryÂ’s digital infrastructure, clogging the Web sites of the president, the prime minister, Parliament and other government agencies, staggering EstoniaÂ’s biggest bank and overwhelming the sites of several daily newspapers.

“It turned out to be a national security situation,” Estonia’s defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said in an interview. “It can effectively be compared to when your ports are shut to the sea.”

Computer security experts from NATO, the European Union, the United States and Israel have since converged on Tallinn to offer help and to learn what they can about cyberwar in the digital age.

“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. “It has gotten the attention of a lot of people.”

The denial of a Putin connection is the most clear sign that there is one, given the byzantine workings of Russian government.

But more importantly, it raises the question of whether or not the US is ready for such an attack by our enemies -- and if we are ready to perpetrate one against our enemies. Given the freedom with which al-Qaeda and other Islamists prowl the internet, I fear that the answer may be no.

Posted by: Greg at 05:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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