Post by: gunug on June 17, 2008, 12:44:11 PM
QUOTE
GCN: Describe how the attacks unfolded.
Almann: We experienced two phases of attacks. The first phase was carried out by what we call hacktivists. Relatively primitive and simple attack tools were used against Estonia by ordinary people who are instructed to attack Estonia mostly on Russian Web sites and those on which the attack tools were posted. Those attack tools were designed against Estonian Web sites — and mostly government Web sites, such as the Estonian government Briefing Room, Estonian Ministry of Defense and certain leading parties in Estonia. But the organizers were not able to come up with a sufficient amount of people taking part in those attacks. And at some point, there was a general fatigue.
The second phase of the attacks used much more sophisticated attack tools — mainly botnets. This is a rough estimate, but [we’ve learned] the attacks came from 75 or more jurisdictions using 1 million or more computers.
The fascinating thing about this is that the people who owned those computers actually had no idea they were attacking another government. The notion of a personal computer is really counterintuitive. There is no such thing as a personal computer. Everyone’s computer can be used to attack another country.
http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display....;story.id=46457
Almann: We experienced two phases of attacks. The first phase was carried out by what we call hacktivists. Relatively primitive and simple attack tools were used against Estonia by ordinary people who are instructed to attack Estonia mostly on Russian Web sites and those on which the attack tools were posted. Those attack tools were designed against Estonian Web sites — and mostly government Web sites, such as the Estonian government Briefing Room, Estonian Ministry of Defense and certain leading parties in Estonia. But the organizers were not able to come up with a sufficient amount of people taking part in those attacks. And at some point, there was a general fatigue.
The second phase of the attacks used much more sophisticated attack tools — mainly botnets. This is a rough estimate, but [we’ve learned] the attacks came from 75 or more jurisdictions using 1 million or more computers.
The fascinating thing about this is that the people who owned those computers actually had no idea they were attacking another government. The notion of a personal computer is really counterintuitive. There is no such thing as a personal computer. Everyone’s computer can be used to attack another country.
http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display....;story.id=46457
I also appreciated the first part of this comment:
QUOTE
Almann: The right to use the Internet is almost a human right that the government has to guarantee. We also believe e-services bring the government closer to the people. E-elections have tremendously increased turnouts in elections, especially among younger generations. We shouldn’t let the attacks affect our way of life. But we need to deal with those threats and learn from them.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on June 19, 2008, 02:48:47 PM
QUOTE
Everyone’s computer can be used to attack another country.
At the risk of being called an Apple Fanboy, it seems the fellow is confusing the term "computer" with "Windows based PCs." 
But I wonder why he finds it "fascinating" that those who have had their machines taken over didn't know it? 
Have these facts not yet made it to Estonia? 