July 6th, 2007
US focusing on Estonia cyberattack in upcoming wargames
It seems the US government is taking the cyberattacks on Estonia quite seriously. Earlier this week, US-CERT sent experts to Estonia to learn more about the attacks. At the same time, the Defense Department has been getting ready for cyber wargames, Ars Technica reports.
The government is setting up a new organization, the “Cyber Command,” to prepare the country for similar cyber attacks and is also changing the focus of a scheduled three-week exercise in September—designed to test the financial sector’s ability to respond to pandemics—to include simulating the response to cyberterrorism.
According to Arbor Networks, the attacks were not debilitating. “Life seemed to go on” even as the government withstood the attacks. But the Estonia attacks are seen in other countries as a watershed: the first cyberwar. Welcome to the 21st century.
“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, in a statement to the press.
George W. Bush praised Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves: “Thank you for your clear understanding of the dangers that imposes not only on your country, but mine and others as well,” the president said.
The cyberwar could be a blessing in that the sustained attack failed to wipe out Estonia’s networks and the experience has provided crucial information to countries around the world on what real-world attack look like and how to combat them.
