Cyberterrorism: The World's First Internet War?

Information warfare encompasses computer operations, electronic warfare, and so-called "influence operations." Sometimes information-such as intelligence obtained by the RC-135 Rivet Joint crew above (no connection to the attack on Estonia) -is put to immediate use on the battlefield.

The computer attack aimed at Estonia recently shows that the world can't ignore the dangers of cyberterrorism any longer.

It was one of the biggest cyberattacks ever launched, and it nearly brought an entire country to its knees. On April 27, traffic on government and banking Web sites based in Estonia began to increase rapidly; by the next day, the hackers began to use Russian weblogs to spread the message and instigate further participation; by then, traffic had increased nearly 1,000 times, and virtually all Web sites were down. Some have called the attacks, which spread into May, the world's first Internet war.

The attack came at a time of frayed nerves. As it followed a diplomatic row between Estonia and Russia over the relocation of a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn, observers in Estonia and media reports initially accused the Russian government of having launched the assault.

Gadi Evron, a security technologist for Israel-based consultancy Beyond Security, told the Black Hat Web security conference last week that his analysis of the attacks indicates that the first wave of denial-of-service attacks against specific Web sites may have been triggered by the Russian blogosphere where angry Russians urged others to join the attack on Estonia. They provided a tool for the entire population to use, Evron said, according to a report in PC World. The second phase of the attacks, in late May, was specifically crafted and more targeted, proving that sophisticated planning had been involved.

OK, the KGB no longer exists, Evron said of the former Russian spy service, adding, however, that he found it "hard to believe it was a mere epidemic."

Of course, the Estonian case is a special one: Slightly smaller than New Hampshire and Vermont combined, nearly all of Estonia's economy relies on the Internet. Wireless and cable penetration is virtually complete -- every municipality is mandated to have a public Internet cafe, and the former Soviet republic even organized its parliamentary elections online. So while it is tough to speculate who was the mastermind behind the attacks, the target was definitely well-chosen.

James Andrew Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Security & International Studies, however, argues that there is a difference between real terror and the case of cyber-riots that rocked the former Soviet Republic.

"No one died or was injured, dams did not burst, planes did not crash, and electricity was uninterrupted," he wrote in a commentary for the Atlantic Community, an online platform for trans-Atlantic debate on key issues of international politics and globalization. "If the events in Estonia were made into a blockbuster movie, it would star hordes of road-clogging Teletubbies, not Bruce Willis."

Teletubbies and Bruce Willis aside -- the world's governments are getting ready to secure their cyberspace, especially as more and more information and government tools are moving to the Web.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security organizes America's Internet security; last month it sent a representative to Estonia to help analyze the large volume of data that was generated by the attacks. China is reportedly also planning to set up a cyber-defense system, and India wants to cooperate with France on several aspects of cybersecurity. Moreover, experts believe that most world powers also employ hackers that are able to launch and fend off Internet attacks like the one in Estonia.

And while there are not many cases of cyberattacks to date, the Internet is nevertheless a playing ground for terrorists. Already, the core of Islamist terror groups launches sophisticated public relations campaigns via the Web. Moreover, one of the main recruiting tools for terror cells is the Internet, be it through e-mail traffic, Islamist blogs, chat rooms and information Web sites -- after all, the Web is the perfect hiding ground, as it guarantees anonymity.

"In information warfare, you may know your opponents, rivals, and enemies, but you do not know who is actually attacking," Evron said.

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© 2007 UPI/ Newscom. USAF photo by MSgt. Lance Cheung