Estonia experts build defences after cyber attacks
Estonian officials reeling from three weeks of cyber attacks on government and private internet sites are looking at ways to shore up the Baltic state's infrastructure against future onslaughts.The attacks hit sites across the country, from newspapers...
Estonian officials reeling from three weeks of cyber attacks on government and private internet sites are looking at ways to shore up the Baltic state's infrastructure against future onslaughts.
The attacks hit sites across the country, from newspapers to schools to the defence ministry, and appear to have stemmed initially from Russia, though the Kremlin has denied waging a "cyber-war" against Estonia's infrastructure.
The April 27 start of the onslaught coincided with fierce rioting by members of Estonia's Russian minority, sparked by Tallinn's plans to move a Soviet-era statue from the city centre to a military cemetery.
The decision enraged Moscow, which threatened sanctions.
"We should look at the timing of the attacks on our embassy, the non-official sanctions and the cyber attacks against Estonian government websites and it is clear that it is not a coincidence," Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told reporters after meeting Baltic counterparts in Latvia last Friday.
Estonian police have charged only one person, a 19-year-old Tallinn man, with encouraging the attacks in internet forums.
New measures on the table for the internet-dependent country - which pioneered online voting earlier this year - include creating a working group to look at current efforts and drawing on ideas from Estonia's allies in Nato and the European Union.
"This was the first time a Nato member was attacked in this way on such a large scale," Urmas Paet said. "Nato can learn from this experience and be better prepared against future attacks."
Estonia also raised the attacks at an EU defence ministers' meeting this week.
The cyber attack became so severe in early May that Estonia's recently formed Computer Emergency Response Team had to resort to blocking foreign access to Estonian servers.
Network specialists said the attacks consisted of a barrage of clicks on a given website, leading to overload. Some sites faced up to 1,000 clicks a second, compared with a normal level of 1,000 to 1,500 clicks a day.
The attacks peaked on May 8 and 9 - during events in Russia and the Baltics marking the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis.
They tailed off, but Mr Semjonova said it was clear professional hackers were still probing for network weaknesses.
What shook experts was the sophistication of the methods.
"They used very different modern techniques we have not seen before," said information technology lecturer and government adviser Linnar Viik.
The cost of the attack is not yet clear.
"Even internet service providers do not know how to price it. But key services such as for banks were down for only a short time," Mr Semjonova said.
Estonia has a population of just 1.3 million but nearly 800,000 Estonians use internet banking.
The attacks hit sites across the country, from newspapers to schools to the defence ministry, and appear to have stemmed initially from Russia, though the Kremlin has denied waging a "cyber-war" against Estonia's infrastructure.
The April 27 start of the onslaught coincided with fierce rioting by members of Estonia's Russian minority, sparked by Tallinn's plans to move a Soviet-era statue from the city centre to a military cemetery.
The decision enraged Moscow, which threatened sanctions.
"We should look at the timing of the attacks on our embassy, the non-official sanctions and the cyber attacks against Estonian government websites and it is clear that it is not a coincidence," Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told reporters after meeting Baltic counterparts in Latvia last Friday.
Estonian police have charged only one person, a 19-year-old Tallinn man, with encouraging the attacks in internet forums.
New measures on the table for the internet-dependent country - which pioneered online voting earlier this year - include creating a working group to look at current efforts and drawing on ideas from Estonia's allies in Nato and the European Union.
"This was the first time a Nato member was attacked in this way on such a large scale," Urmas Paet said. "Nato can learn from this experience and be better prepared against future attacks."
Estonia also raised the attacks at an EU defence ministers' meeting this week.
The cyber attack became so severe in early May that Estonia's recently formed Computer Emergency Response Team had to resort to blocking foreign access to Estonian servers.
Network specialists said the attacks consisted of a barrage of clicks on a given website, leading to overload. Some sites faced up to 1,000 clicks a second, compared with a normal level of 1,000 to 1,500 clicks a day.
The attacks peaked on May 8 and 9 - during events in Russia and the Baltics marking the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis.
They tailed off, but Mr Semjonova said it was clear professional hackers were still probing for network weaknesses.
What shook experts was the sophistication of the methods.
"They used very different modern techniques we have not seen before," said information technology lecturer and government adviser Linnar Viik.
The cost of the attack is not yet clear.
"Even internet service providers do not know how to price it. But key services such as for banks were down for only a short time," Mr Semjonova said.
Estonia has a population of just 1.3 million but nearly 800,000 Estonians use internet banking.