Estonia accuses Russia of 'cyberattack'

"If you are implying [the attacks] came from Russia or the Russian government, it's a serious allegation that has to be substantiated. Cyber-space is everywhere," Russia's ambassador in Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov, said in reply to a question from the Guardian. He added: "I don't support such behaviour, but one has to look at where they [the attacks] came from and why."

But technology news site Ars Technica writes that, even if Russia is involved, such involvement may be impossible to prove. Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure, a Finnish security company, said, "In practice there is just one IP address that leads to a government computer. It is of course possible that an attack was launched from there, too, but the person behind it could be anyone, from the son of some ministerial janitor upwards."

The Economist notes, however, that instructions for DDoS attacks are being posted anonymously on Russian-language websites. Given Russia's potential involvement, NATO has given "special attention" to the cyberattacks.

"If a member state's communications centre is attacked with a missile, you call it an act of war. So what do you call it if the same installation is disabled with a cyber-attack?" asks a senior [NATO] official in Brussels. Estonia's defence ministry goes further: a spokesman compares the attacks to those launched against America on September 11th 2001. Two of NATO's top specialists in internet warfare, plus an American colleague, have hurried to Tallinn to observe the onslaught. But international law is of little help, complains Rein Lang, Estonia's justice minister.

Agence France-Presse writes that part of the problem is the newness of this kind of attack - rules on how to respond don't exist yet.

"We haven't yet defined what can be considered to be a cyber-attack, or what are the rights of member states and the obligations of EU and NATO in the event such attacks are launched," [Estonian Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo] said.

"The EU and NATO need to work out a common legal basis to deal with cyber attacks. For example, we have to agree on how to tackle different levels of criminal cyber-activities, depending on whether what we are dealing with is vandalism, cyber-terror or cyber-war," he said.

Hillar Aarelaid, head of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team agreed, saying, "The unprecedented cyber-attacks against Estonia have clearly indicated we need much stronger regulations in this area. You could compare this with what our great-grandparents faced when cars first started to appear on the streets. Eventually, there were so many of them that new, strict rules needed to be implemented."

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