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Expert Dissects Estonian Cyber-War 172

Stony Stevenson points out an iTnews summary of a security researcher's account of the cyber-attacks on Estonia last year. The full report [PDF] is also available. We've discussed this internet-based conflict in the past. From the report: "In the days leading up to the attack, numerous clues pointed to a large-scale operation that was being planned online. Russian-language Internet discussion forums were abuzz with preparations for an online attack. Three days before the expected onslaught, Estonia planned to release the news of the coming strike in hopes that European media attention would oblige the EU to pressure the Kremlin to intervene, whether or not the attacks emanated from the Russian authorities."
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Expert Dissects Estonian Cyber-War

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  • And the mass media scores big again!
  • by yamamushi ( 903955 ) <yamamushi@@@gmail...com> on Thursday May 22, 2008 @05:58PM (#23512438) Homepage
    This talk at Defcon 15 was much better: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5362349666961901582 [google.com]
    • by LilGuy ( 150110 )
      Really? I found that nearly impossible to watch.
    • by DetrimentalFiend ( 233753 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @08:02PM (#23513274)
      I'm 5 minutes into the talk and he still hasn't said anything even close to interesting but has made a complete ass of himself. I didn't RTFA, but it must be pretty bad if this is "much better".
    • by emilper ( 826945 )

      hmmm...

      ping -n 5000 -l 1000 localhost
      ping: cannot set preload to value > 3

      did those blogs give info about how to patch and recompile your ping tool ?

      4Mbps hostile traffic brought down a whole country that used to practically live on the internet ? Do they keep all their web servers on a 586 ?

      Estonians use their internet banking all the time and most have not been to a bank in person in the last 10 years ?? How do they give the signature specimen for a new CC when the old one expires ?
    • And yet none of you have figured out that the guy giving the speech is the same guy mentioned in the article.
  • Yes, yes, and... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <`imipak' `at' `yahoo.com'> on Thursday May 22, 2008 @06:18PM (#23512592) Homepage Journal
    What are nations going to do about it? Many networks are spanning-tree, not mesh, and far too many countries have far too few cross-border gateways that are independent. The cyberattack could have been shut down within 5-10 seconds, with minimal loss of connectivity, if the network had been designed correctly. DDoS attacks aren't limited to governments - the DoS attacks that led to changes in TCP/IP to limit/block such attacks were the effort of some cybercriminal-wannabe, and that was mid 90s. Today, we have inline proactive intrusion detection systems, congestion blocking for UDP and unresponsive flows, routing algorithms that eliminate single points of failure, and the such. What excuse does anyone have, today, for being vulnerable to this? People are vaccinated against common deadly diseases, networks are (or should be) innoculated against common (and potentially deadly) cyberattacks.

    Estonia I can almost forgive, as they're relatively poor and didn't have much time to go from Soviet-era attitudes to something saner. They should still have done more. What bothers me much more is that the scorecards for US departments make it clear that the US is even less prepared for a cyberwar than even Balkan castoffs.

    • by antirelic ( 1030688 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @06:40PM (#23512764) Journal
      Ah yes, mark it up as it calls out the US for being less prepared than a post cold war soviet satellite when this is in fact, completely incorrect. The US government uses networks completely disconnected from the internet to conduct its real business, as posted repeatedly on slashdot. The fact that people still believe that US governments public websites and points of presence are anything more than public relations has not been keeping pace. But go ahead, mod "insightful" and "interesting" because the post makes a "jab" at the US.

      For the rest of the world who isnt so spun up in anti-US fervor to see what the real problem is.... Vladamirs Putins political party is heavily involved in supporting "youth" organizations which can act for the state, without the state getting any stains on its hands. This may be one of those instances of ultra-nationalists, who have been backed by the state, who act "independently" for the interests of the home nation. While it is irresponsible of the Russian government to allow this type of activity to go on, it is certainly not against their best interests.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 22, 2008 @07:21PM (#23513022)
        You mean the NIPRNet and SIPRNet? Those are for the Department of Defense.

        As for the regular US government, almost all of their work involves the Internet. Losing access to email and the web would cripple the US government. Including the Department of Defense, since while all classified information goes over the aforementioned secure networks, a lot of the actual work occurs over the regular Internet since it's easier to actually use. Sure, the soldiers in the field would be able to continue dieing for a vague war on terror without the Internet, but the generals and civilian leadership back in the US would be unable to do anything except send email to soldiers.

        And, of course, everything that isn't related to killing people runs over the regular Internet and would be crippled.
        • And, of course, everything that isn't related to killing people runs over the regular Internet and would be crippled.

          Oh well thats alright then... the military can get on with its core business.
        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by jd ( 1658 )
          You will also no doubt recall that these were found infected by malware that had been transferred from unclassified networks. What difference does an airwall make when it's being run by an airhead?
          • by HiThere ( 15173 )
            Well, when you get infected with a virus it can't phone home. That's worth a lot. (Not enough, maybe, but a lot.)
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Chabil Ha' ( 875116 )
          DoE uses those networks as well. I did an internship with a DoE contractor and as part of my gig, created an internal informational site for the government contractors there consisting mostly of stuff pulled off of Wikipedia and other public sources to 'create awareness'. Fact of the matter is, the same 'tubes' used as the infrastructure for the public side and SIPRNet arethe same, just that everything is heavily encrypted.
      • For the rest of the world who isnt so spun up in anti-US fervor to see what the real problem is....

        He's talking to you, Bob.

      • by emilper ( 826945 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @07:58PM (#23513250)

        While it is irresponsible of the Russian government to allow this type of activity to go on, it is certainly not against their best interests.

        well, if the high-tech and web savvy Estonians were not able to block the attacks, or, according to the pdf report, even accurately pinpoint the origin of the attack, how could Putin's government do that, except by cutting Russia off the internet or implementing over night a clone of the Chinese FireWall?

        How about some Russians being angry about the whole monument business, and some wise guys taking advantage of that anger to help foster a "nation under siege" and do some nation-building at home ? The government of Russia itself is not innocent of this kind of tactics, proof being the last spate of "patriotic" movies, or the "Brat" series, all of them quite nauseously xenophobic ...

        If the argument used is: the Russians were responsible because the attacks came from Russia, how about dropping all packets arriving from the network blocks assigned to Russia? Not the ideal situation, but at least it will allow your citizen use their online banking accounts or pay their taxes. Or maybe not all attacks originated from Russia, in which case you don't really know who did it.

        How would it be in the interest of the Russian government to appear to the world as a bully? If they wanted to harm any of the Baltic states they could have arranged an "accident" on the pipes that supply them with gas ... They did not hesitate to cut the gas supply of Ukraine, with whom they have much closer and friendly ties.

        This whole Russia-bashing is quite annoying. First, the cold war ended 18 years ago, and hands were shaken, cheeks were kissed, TV shows with USA and SU children holding hands were aired, promises were made that it's a peace without winners or losers, Russia let everybody go their way without much opposition and I personally saw Moskva 1 TV channel (was able to watch it because I lived just across the SU border at that time) arranging to show hot female teens saying stuff that would be unimaginable in USA or any nice Western European country, namely "For me Russia means those that want to stay".

        Second, the cold war did not end because the economy of SU was in collapse or anything like this, the way those political analysts, who in 1989 were predicting the survival of the SU for the next 100 years and inventing terms such as "otomanization", are now clamoring. SU economy was in quite a poor shape, but that was the shape the SU economy was ever since 1917. The collapse began about 1991-1992, when a economy that previously functioned as a single company suddenly was split into a myriad of smaller companies that used to function under central command with their resources directed by the central planning offices and calculated to the milligram, and now did not have the staff, the know-how and the resource buffer to compete against each other. The cold war ended because the Brejnevites and the other leaders of the party wanted to legalize their privileged status, and this happened not only in SU, but in all of the Eastern Europe: just take the Top 500 list of "captains of industry" from any country you like and tabulate it against former "Foreign Trade" officials, local party leaders, diplomats etc. The match would not be perfect, fortunately, but you'll be surprised how many positives you'll find, and how few of the former members of the state apparatus in the Communist governments were left outside. If anybody still imagines that a handful of dissidents that in July 1989 were in prison or home arrest managed to topple the Communist regimes, that person is rather naive, since s/he believes that a state apparatus with complete control over the life of its citizen managed fell to the anger of the righteous.

        Third, what happens right now is that Russia is pushed towards a "Weimar" scenario, with native entrepreneurs of violence doi

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          This whole Russia-bashing is quite annoying. First, the cold war ended 18 years ago, and hands were shaken, cheeks were kissed, TV shows with USA and SU children holding hands were aired, promises were made that it's a peace without winners or losers, Russia let everybody go their way without much opposition and I personally saw Moskva 1 TV channel (was able to watch it because I lived just across the SU border at that time) arranging to show hot female teens saying stuff that would be unimaginable in USA o

        • by rtechie ( 244489 ) *

          well, if the high-tech and web savvy Estonians were not able to block the attacks, or, according to the pdf report, even accurately pinpoint the origin of the attack, how could Putin's government do that

          Because Putin's cronies organized the protests and cyber attack.

          How would it be in the interest of the Russian government to appear to the world as a bully?

          Remember how Putin poisoned one of his detractors with polonium, and exotic isotope used only by Russian Intelligence which ends in a very painful death? Putin obviously WANTED his critics to know that he was willing to hunt them down and kill them wherever they are. He compares himself to STALIN, for God's sake.

          This whole Russia-bashing is quite annoying.

          It's not "Russia-bashing" it's "Putin-bashing", or even "neo-communist nationalist-bashing" because that's what we're attacking, no

      • by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @08:21PM (#23513370)
        I know several people who participated in the attack - I'm not connected to hacker underground but they are. They say that almost all people they know that participated in this attack also dislike Putin and his regime.

        It doesn't take an 'ultranationalist' in Russia to protest against the destruction of war memorials - Russia lost 30 million people in WWII (that's about 50 times more than USA lost in WWII).

        Personally, I see this as an evidence of how easy is to wage electronic 'guerrilla warfare'.
        • by jd ( 1658 )
          It doesn't take an 'ultranationalist' in Russia to protest against the destruction of war memorials - Russia lost 30 million people in WWII (that's about 50 times more than USA lost in WWII).

          In the battle for Stalingrad, the Russian side was initially fought by DIY militias, where ordinary citizens would leap on tanks and bung Molotov cocktails down the hatches. (Americans who consider an armed citizenry to be useful against an army would be advised to remember that Stalingrad's citizens only won because

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by capologist ( 310783 )

            the Russian government was hghly sympathetic to Nazi aims.
            Wasn't it a Nazi aim to wipe out Communism? Didn't they see Communism as a giant Jewish conspiracy that posed a great threat to the Aryan race?
            • by jd ( 1658 )
              I'll correct that: the aims the Nazis let the Russians know about, prior to the Blitzkreig manoever.
              • Re:Yes, yes, and... (Score:5, Informative)

                by capologist ( 310783 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @11:33PM (#23514308)
                Hitler was very open about his attitude toward Communism long before Operation Barbarossa. He wrote about it in Mein Kampf.
                • by jd ( 1658 )
                  Ah, but could Stalin read?
                • Here's an excerpt:

                  http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv2ch14.html [hitler.org]

                  And so we National Socialists consciously draw a line beneath the foreign policy tendency of our pre-War period. We take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the east. At long last we break of the colonial and commercial policy of the pre-War period and shift to the soil policy of the future.

                  If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarily have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states.

                  Here Fate itself seems desirous of giving us a sign. By handing Russia to Bolshevism, it robbed the Russian nation of that intelligentsia which previously brought about and guaranteed its existence as a state. For the organization of a Russian state formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in Russia, but only a wonderful example of the state-forming efficacity of the German element in an inferior race. Numerous mighty empires on earth have been created in this way. Lower nations led by Germanic organizers and overlords have more than once grown to be mighty state formations and have endured as long as the racial nudeus of the creative state race maintained itself. For centuries Russia drew nourishment from this Germanic nucleus of its upper leading strata. Today it can be regarded as almost totally exterminated and extinguished. It has been replaced by the Jew. Impossible as it is for the Russian by himself to shake off the yoke of the Jew by his own resources, it is equally impossible for the Jew to maintain the mighty empire forever. He himself is no element of organization, but a ferment of decomposition. The Persian I empire in the east is ripe for collapse. And the end of Jewish rule in Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state.

                  (Note: When he speaks of the rule of the Jew, he is referring to Communism.)

                  (Note #2: When he refers to "The Persian empire in the east," I have elsewhere seen it translated as "The giant empire in the east.")

            • You may want to read Winston Churchill's take on Communism [flawlesslogic.com] - old Winnie was none too keen on the Jews himself.
        • by niiler ( 716140 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @09:08PM (#23513576) Journal

          The war memorial was moved to a Russian cemetery [turkishpress.com], not destroyed. This was far more appropriate considering that most Estonians felt that Stalin was FAR worse than Hitler. Sheesh, 10% of the Estonian adult population was deported to gulags and death camps by the Russians. Under the Nazis, if you weren't Roma, gay, or Jewish, you were OK. [I'm not saying that the Nazis were nice folks. On the contrary, they were horrid too.]

          So the bear rescued the rabbit from the falcon, the bear still tried eating the rabbit. It's either disingenuous or ignorant to claim that the rabbit ought to be thanking the bear.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          It doesn't take an 'ultranationalist' in Russia to protest against the destruction of war memorials

          It does take a rather brainwashed person to see all the lies about "destruction" on the state-owned TV and believe it without double-checking. Russian TV channels were feeding not only propaganda, but outright lies, even showing a picture of the statue's feet standing on the pedestal, the rest apparently torn off (the pic was later found out to be photoshopped). Meanwhile, everyone who had been tracking the e

          • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
            I'm sorry, but Russian channels reported that the memorial was being moved to the cemetary.

            It doesn't make a difference - it's no less offensive.
            • I see a big difference between relocation and destruction. Go and be offended all you want, but to call them equivalent sounds like pointless whining and petty emotionalism to me.
              • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
                No.

                Estonians destroyed the war memorial by moving the statue to another place. Also, it was done several days before the May 9 ("Victory Day") to add even more insult.
                • The truth that I see is that you people are desperately searching for reasons to be insulted.

                  That is the only plausible explaination that I see for people that see relocation as destruction.
                  • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
                    You see, if it was 'just a relocation' than a public outcry about it from a Russian-speaking population would have been enough to stop it. It was destruction of a _symbol_ and Estonians themselves understand it quite well.

                    You see, Estonia is openly Russophobic - a quarter of Russians live there as 'aliens' (without rights to vote, etc.) even though they were born in Estonia (while it was a part of USSR). It was another reason the destruction of the memorial had such a great effect.

                    Another interesting fact:
                    • That's hardly convincing. Just because a lot of people feel a certain way doesn't make it so. In this case, all that makes them is emotionally immature people. Letting the emotions get in the way to the point that relocation is equated as destruction, as well as the examples you gave, are basically examples of a people that just can't let go. It doesn't even look like it's really about WWII memorials, that was over six decades ago now, now it's just a bitter grudge.
                    • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
                      Would you be offended or would you consider it a good real-estate deal?

                      Or another example: what if someone decides to build a brothel on the site of WTC towers?

                      "It doesn't even look like it's really about WWII memorials, that was over six decades ago now, now it's just a bitter grudge."

                      You don't UNDERSTAND the impact of WWII. Jews still talk about the Holocaust and Russia lost 6-8 times more people in that war.
            • I'm sorry, but Russian channels reported that the memorial was being moved to the cemetary.

              They've started doing so after they've been caught lying. Before that, they were foaming at the mouth about how the move was extremely destructive (on RTR, it was told that, in order to move the monument, it was "cut into pieces" - that's when the photoshopped legs-alone-on-pedestal pic was showed on TV; here's another such article [news.ntv.ru] on NTV web site - notice how it also mentions that the monument has been "cut into par

        • 30 million
          The difference is that Russia didn't count losses in the same way that the anyone else did in that time. To Mother Russia, it was a number. To just about every other country it meant the life of a soldier.
        • "Personally, I see this as an evidence of how easy is to wage electronic 'guerrilla warfare'."

          If it was easy, I'd think it would be done far more often. It's harder than real guerrilla warfare because those waging it need to have a fair amount of technical knowledge in order to make the tools and carry out the attack. The tools to carry out a real guerrilla attack can be made with far simpler technologies invented seven or so decades ago.
          • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
            You also need a cause to wage a guerrilla warfare for it.

            As for tools - they are easy to get. And there's a surprising number of people who can use it.

      • Re:Yes, yes, and... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by shutdown -p now ( 807394 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @10:56PM (#23514158) Journal

        For the rest of the world who isnt so spun up in anti-US fervor to see what the real problem is.... Vladamirs Putins political party is heavily involved in supporting "youth" organizations which can act for the state, without the state getting any stains on its hands.
        You're not keeping up with the news. The "youth organizations" had one sole purpose - their members were supposed to clash on the streets with opposition supporters after the elections, if their results would be disputed so much that the people would go out to the streets (as it happened in Ukraine and Georgia earlier). Now that elections are past (and were relatively quiet), Kremlin has little use for all the skinheads they've hired, so most "youth orgs" have been basically told to go screw themselves.

        Oh, and you really do not need any sort of government backing to mount a pretty massive cyber-attack on Estonia here. Most Russians hate the Baltic countries (thanks to all the Russian TV propaganda about suppressing the Russian minority and glorious marches of SS veterans that happen there), there are plenty of semi-serious jokes about "our tanks in Riga (/Vilnius/Tallinn)" etc. All that was needed was a spark, and the events in Estonia gave it. I would be surprised if the "youth org" members didn't heavily participate (for one, because they are strongly brainwashed), or that there was tacit government support for that. But it's hardly organized by the Russian state as a whole.

        • Those youth organisations still have a use. They were recently employed to picket the premises and harass the employees of the British Council [wikipedia.org] (the Wikipedia article includes information on the Russian difficulties. This is part of an attempt to intimidate the British government in the ongoing diplomatic shenanigans surrounding the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

      • by rtechie ( 244489 ) *

        The US government uses networks completely disconnected from the internet to conduct its real business, as posted repeatedly on slashdot.

        This is incredibly wrong. The US military uses a disconnected network "SIPRNet" for SOME classified information and communication between military equipment (tanks reporting their position to the command center). That's it. Every other part of the US government, like the IRS and the FBI, use the public internet as do all local and state agencies. Yes, the IRS transfers your tax data on the public internet.

        Vladamirs Putins political party is heavily involved in supporting "youth" organizations which can act for the state,

        You are right in thinking this was probably a staged attack by the Russian government.

    • Re:Yes, yes, and... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Cassius Corodes ( 1084513 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @07:45PM (#23513196)
      Baltic, not Balkan champ.
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by polymeris ( 902231 )

      Estonia I can almost forgive, as they're relatively poor and didn't have much time to go from Soviet-era attitudes to something saner. They should still have done more.

      Estonia is doing some interesting things [www.vvk.ee] online. They seem to have progressed from that Soviet era attitude you mention.

    • Re:Yes, yes, and... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Pedrito ( 94783 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @08:41PM (#23513470)
      Estonia I can almost forgive, as they're relatively poor and didn't have much time to go from Soviet-era attitudes to something saner. They should still have done more. What bothers me much more is that the scorecards for US departments make it clear that the US is even less prepared for a cyberwar than even Balkan castoffs.

      Actually, Estonia isn't very poor. They're a member of the E.U. They're the wealthiest of the Baltic States and their market economy has "one of the highest per capita income levels of Central Europe" (CIA World Factbook [cia.gov]). Their unemployment is comparable to the U.S., at just 5.2%. They're actually quite modern. Most of their population files tax returns online. Does that sound like a poverty-struck backwards nation to you?

      There's nothing very Soviet about them, really. They speak their own language, Estonian, which is quite similar to Finnish. Estonia and Finland have very close ties, culturally and financially.

      You're clearly thinking of some other Estonia.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Mesa MIke ( 1193721 )
        > You're clearly thinking of some other Estonia.

        He must've been thinking of Elbonia.
      • one of the highest per capita income levels of Central Europe
        Hey! I have seen Euro-trip! They might be the wealthiest of the Baltic States, but I bet you could still buy a car with the change in your pocket!

        Its humor, not flamebait.
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )
      Naturally, it is the spread of rampant capitalism, infrastructure to the lowest bidder, maintenance to the lowest bidder, profits today, cost are someone else's problem tomorrow, after the bonuses have been paid out.

      Even real oddities can occur ie. when you charge for traffic across a network, DDOS attacks can prove very profitable to those selling bandwidth and it would actually cost them money without any financial return to stop them.

      So it requires legislation to force privatised infrastructure provi

    • Estonia has nothing to do with the Balkans. It's one of the Baltic states and it was part of the Soviet Union itself. And it's not poor, either.
    • by rtechie ( 244489 ) *

      What excuse does anyone have, today, for being vulnerable to this?
      Money. Everything you talked about costs money. More links, new equipment, more staff, etc.

      Estonia I can almost forgive, as they're relatively poor
      It's not like they need the money for public works, energy costs, FOOD. The reality is that expensive network equipment is a relatively low priority for most nations, and rightly so.

  • Expert? (Score:5, Informative)

    by lambent ( 234167 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @06:37PM (#23512734)
    I'm sorry, but ... wait, no I'm not.

    Gadi Evron, while undeniably prolific, is questionably informed. Take what he has to say with a grain of salt, and don't for a second believe there's anything more involved here than using well-known industry best-practices for evaluating vulnerable infrastructure and dealing with this type of traffic.

    We now return to your regularly scheduled cross-post flame-fest between nanog and full-disclosure.
    • So, you think EuSecWest should let Muniz present? If n3td3v is right (and ofcourse he is) this could destroy the internet (I heard he has already put in an application for MI5)
  • Too bad. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cdrguru ( 88047 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @06:52PM (#23512850) Homepage
    The Internet as it stands today is a consequences-free zone. Nations can't "do" anything about such attacks because there are no effective ways to conclusively track them back to individuals or even organizations. Even if there was, how much is some official going to do in China when handed a report of some kind of attack against some other country's computers?

    As continuously pointed out, an IP address does not identify an individual. Today, with today's laws, unless you leave clear tracks to other forms of identification just having an IP address does not connect a deed with an individual. You can threaten, harass, and, yes, DDoS, with impunity. I don't see this changing anytime soon.

    This pretty much means that any real online presence lives or dies by how much they draw attention to themselves and how motivated the attackers are. Estonia sounds like they were particularly vulnerable with little in the way of offline backup for basic services. This is not true in the US today, but it could easily be that way tomorrow. Could a group of disgruntled folks cripple government services in the US? Maybe. Given the current climate with laws, enforcement and international cooperation, there is no way that anyone outside the US would ever be prosecuted unless they bragged about what they did.
  • by RCL ( 891376 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @07:01PM (#23512906) Homepage
    I remember how I was also enraged upon hearing about Estonian plans and yes, I wanted to join the resistance (or "cyber-war" as they called it immediately in the West). But a bit later when emotions calmed down I changed my mind, because it all was immature and not that effective anyway (and yes, reading about the events from Estonian POV helped me to get calm, too).

    Let God/History/Nature/whatever be the judge for Estonians, not me. If they prefer Nazis over Soviets, so be it. They made their choice.
    • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @09:37PM (#23513730)
      I never really understand when someone gets enraged when a different country does something considered an insult by another. These aren't personal insults. They're insults to a government, often a past government. Ie, US "patriots" foaming at the mouth when France won't be a lap dog, or someplace objects to expanding military bases, etc. It makes no sense.

      For Estonia, it's their country, they can do whatever they want with some statue that they never asked for. If moving the statue means anything to the Russians, it should have meant some sort of introspection about why they're not seen as the glorious savior of eastern europe. Why the anger? I honestly don't understand it, except that most people growing up in the Soviet Union were fed propaganda and haven't learned to see things from other viewpoints.

      Such as the viewpoint that this statue was never seen as a "war memorial" to the ethnic Estonians, but was a symbol of occupation and Russification, and had become a flash point for conflicts. If anyone was insulted, it was the Soviet occupation. Do modern Russians still fondly love the Stalinist era? Should Germans become enranged if someone tears down a memorial put up by Nazis? Do Russians still honestly believe Estonia is fascist, that they loved the Nazis? Given a choice between Stalinist brutality and Nazi brutality, why are Russians still pissed off that they weren't the first choice?

      And yes, I am equating Stalinist excesses to Nazi excesses. I don't believe praising the lesser of two evils.
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Alex Belits ( 437 ) *
        There are Russians (ethnic Russians, not Russian Federation citizens) in Estonia, and Estonian government from the very beginning established a policy of excluding them from pretty much everything by denying them citizenship on a bogus premise of "not speaking Estonian well enough".

        Promoting Nazi organizations and removing the war monument from a public square was seen by them, and Russians outside Estonia, as a continuation of the same policy, revealing its true political goals.

        So far the best excuse for s
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Darinbob ( 1142669 )

          There are Russians (ethnic Russians, not Russian Federation citizens) in Estonia,

          True. The vast majority of ethnic Russians in Estonia though immigrated during the Soviet era, as part of russification and build up of industrialization. Should Estonia be allowed to try and restore a national identity and choose it's own national language?

          So far the best excuse for siding with Nazi the Estonian nationalists presented was along the lines "but Nazi did not kill ethnic Estonians, so they are alright for us".

          Nazis did kill ethnic Estonians. But the Soviets killed far more. Estonians welcomed the Nazis as liberators because they had been recently forcibly annexed into the USSR and were being repressed. This in no way means they approved of fascism on t

          • There are countries all over Europe who were occupied by the Nazis and who had some population willingly side with the Nazis.

            Including large number of Soviet citizens, including ethnic Russians. The SS raised a number of Ukrainian divisions, and large numbers of Don Cossacks, Azeris and other nationalities fought against the Red Army in more ad-hoc units. This is not to forget the large number of non-combat personnel that were employed in anti-partisan and police roles. The Nazis ideology limited their

            • And nevertheless all those people are traitors, and deserve all derision they got.

              Glorifying the WWII version of "welcoming the overlords" is something that only people completely blinded by their hatred of Russia and USSR could do.

              If someone forgot:

              Confirmed victims of Stalin: about 2 millions.
              Confirmed victims of Nazi: >50 millions.
              • by rtechie ( 244489 ) *

                Confirmed victims of Stalin: about 2 millions.

                Stalin is responsible for the deaths of approximately 60 million people - from a combination of murder, war, famine, and neglect. That includes some of the Russians killed by the Nazis, as Stalin often sent military units into hopeless battles deliberately to eliminate his "opponents". His collectivization policies completely destroyed Russian agriculture causing famine, which he encouraged to purge more of his "opponents". Of course, he also outright kidnapped and murdered millions of innocent people.

                Stal

              • The figure most widely accepted by historians in both the West and the former Soviet Union for those who died in Gulags between 1930-53 are 1.9 million, which doesn't include the 1.8 million believed to have been shot without being sentenced to the camps. That's 3.7 million already. The brief access to the KGB and state archives that occurred during the Yeltsin era reinforced these conclusions, although the records are missing for a number of periods and regions. An additional 20 to 25 million Soviet citize

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          Ethnic Russians who have consistently supported the Estonian independence in Soviet time (before it was actually declared) have all received Estonian citizenship according to the new laws regardless of language knowledge. The rest were either apathetic or outright wanted Estonia to remain in the USSR (essentially, to remain occupied). Why does the new state owe anything, much less citizenship, to the latter two categories?

          It's ironic, really... we hear a lot about how Russians are oppressed in Estonia, an

          • Yet very few Russians actually bother to leave Estonia for Russia - apparently they are still better off there, even as non-citizens...

            That's not a very sound argument. Just because someone cannot leave their home and become a refugee doesn't have to mean they are better off being where they are...

            I mean, how many Kurds "bothered" to leave Saddam's Iraq, or how many Albanians left Yugoslavia in the 1990s? Armenians in Turkey? Or what about 400,000 Tutsis that were slaughtered by the Hutu folks; you think they didn't move because they were better off dead? Amerindians? The six million Jews, very few of them left Nazi Germany alive...

            • The difference here is that Estonian Russians have a place to move to, and they would be granted Russian citizenship without much hassle. In fact, IIRC, 1/3 of holders of the "non-citizen" Estonian passports also happen to have Russian citizenship - yet they choose to stay in Estonia. A very large number of participants of the Tallinn protests actually belong to that category - it was rather ironic that the toughest punishment considered for those who participated in the looting that followed was deportatio
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by frn123 ( 242374 )
          Just a bit of clarification:
          There really is NO promoting Nazi organizations or siding with Nazi in Estonia. Can i ask from where does this false information come from?

          Also the bogus premise of "speaking language x well enough to get citizenship" is needed in the vast majority of European countries (correct me if i'm wrong).
    • by shiznatix ( 924851 ) on Friday May 23, 2008 @02:46AM (#23514894)

      If they prefer Nazis over Soviets, so be it. They made their choice.
      Holy shit! You obviously don't understand anything. Nobody liberated Estonia, ever, except for the Estonians themselves linky [wikipedia.org] and linky 2 [wikipedia.org] (granted we got a bit of help from our neighbors). We (I am an Estonian) do NOT prefer Nazis. We just hate both Soviets and Nazis. If there was some crazy Nazi war memorial at the same place it would have been removed as well.

      Also, how in the world is removing a Soviet statue saying "I love Nazis"? Every single year the Russians would gather at the memorial during VE day and get wasted and wave the Soviet flag around. Naturally the Estonians would come by with signs like "During the occupation X amount of people were deported" and whatnot. Then a fight would break out and the cops would have to come stop a small scale riot from breaking out because someone told these idiots the truth. To stop this from escalating we moved the monument. We did not destroy it, we did not desecrate the bodies, we did not cut the statue into pieces as the Durma said, we moved it with full respect for the dead.

      Saying we prefer Nazis is strange. My own family was killed by the Nazis and my grandfather deported to Germany to work in a forced labor camp till the war ended and the guards just disapeard one day. I hate Nazis. I have about 1 or 2 living relatives left in Estonia because of that. But that does not make me a Soviet lover. You don't have to pick a side here, you can hate both.

      Yes, we made our choice. We chose freedom and thats what we have. Don't like it, comrade? Tough.
  • Cyber attacks are dangerous (impact on Estonia described). The are too easy to organize (Russian blogs described). We need draconian laws to punish offenders. Russia (and other poorly governed countries) can't be relied upon to establish draconian laws. We must lead the way! (and probably force everyone else to follow).
  • I wonder when... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Fluffeh ( 1273756 ) on Thursday May 22, 2008 @07:29PM (#23513070)
    I wonder when the "Usual suspects" in terms of global terrorism and splinter governments realize that this sort of warfare is much cheaper to run than what they are doing, and can cause just as much if not more harm to the target country.

    Lets hope it's later rather than sooner.
    • [...] that this sort of warfare is much cheaper to run than what they are doing, and can cause just as much if not more harm to the target country.

      In rational terms - maybe, but terror relies on emotional rather than rational assesment of the damage.

      Two buildings and a few thousand people? More of each perish everyday for natural reasons. And yet it made headlines.

      "GNP damage due to internet attacks estimated at 2 bajillion dollars" won't make it to page 1.

  • by Alex Belits ( 437 ) * on Thursday May 22, 2008 @09:43PM (#23513766) Homepage
    A government of a tiny country, that has no achievements other than supporting relatively comfortable life for its microscopic population on subsidies and investments, and acting as US agent in EU (aka member of "New Europe"), imagines itself important and invulnerable, and pisses off hundreds of millions of people.

    An extremely small minority of the pissed off hundreds of millions performs otherwise meaningless juvenile prank, that multiplied by the number of participants causes visible problems.

    What the Hell did Estonian government expect? That the strength of their self-righteousness, or their American overlords, will protect them?

    Learn some international politics beyond "do what sugar daddy says, and everything will be fine".
    • I am neither Estonian nor Russian, and have never visited either country.

      That being said, this attitude that the Estonian government is somehow horribly evil for moving a statue I find to be utterly incomprehensible. If the United States government decided tomorrow to move the Vietnam wall across the Mall and plunk it down over somewhere else, you'd have a few thousand disgruntled veterans. You might see a few angry op-ed letters. The idea that there would be violent rioting in the streets and destructio
      • That being said, this attitude that the Estonian government is somehow horribly evil for moving a statue I find to be utterly incomprehensible. If the United States government decided tomorrow to move the Vietnam wall across the Mall and plunk it down over somewhere else

        No, actually, think about it more like: think that France decided to dismantle some monument to the WW2 American soldiers and send it back to America, together with a very loud and very melodramatic message, along the lines of, "fuck you ver

        • by rtechie ( 244489 ) *

          No, actually, think about it more like: think that France decided to dismantle some monument to the WW2 American soldiers and send it back to America, together with a very loud and very melodramatic message, along the lines of, "fuck you very much, we didn't invite you here in the first place. Oh, and we liked the Nazis and Petain more."

          When did the USA march the French into concentration camps? Oh that's right, THEY DIDN'T. Stalin killed way more Estonians than Hitler.

          The situation is more comparable to Native Americans asking for a war memorial dedicated to the US Army removed from their territory. Sure, at various points the US Army did "defend" Native Americans, but they slaughtered a lot more of them.

    • by upside ( 574799 )
      Hmm, so you're saying a nation's right to self-determination and to conduct internal affairs depends on
      - it's size
      - it's achievements
      - perceived humility towards a neighbouring nation so insecure they get aroused by a small gesture

      You're simply betraying your own sense of superiority and arrogant imperialist tendencies.

      Russians need to grow up and realise they don't need to care what others think of them. Their reaction is no different from Muslims issuing fatwahs on Danish cartoonists. Oh, and learn to see
      • Hmm, so you're saying a nation's right to self-determination and to conduct internal affairs depends on
        - it's size
        - it's achievements
        - perceived humility towards a neighbouring nation so insecure they get aroused by a small gesture

        That's a part of it. Otherwise every gang will claim its stomping ground to be their "nation". In addition to that claiming that they were oppressed while being a member of large federation (USSR, where small Estonia had 1/15 of votes in Soviet of Nationalities, one of two Supreme Soviet chambers) only to join one large union (EU) and act there in the interests of yet another large country (US) pretty much discredits the whole idea of "freedom-loving Estonian politicians". Estonian independence was a windf

  • Pauly Shore and his Encino Man will come to the rescue!!

    shoooooshhh

    *duck*
  • I actually saw it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Jay Tarbox ( 48535 ) on Friday May 23, 2008 @06:10AM (#23515590) Homepage Journal
    A customer of mine (small college) reported issues with their (smallish) internet pipe one evening. Something appeared to be hogging a bunch of bandwidth.
    Long story short, a sniffer revealed a huge amount of traffic coming from a particular student machine directed at an IP address ARIN showed as belonging to Estonia's government. We said huh, wierd and shut down his switch port and went to bed.
    Of course we found out a little bit later about the attacks. I don't have the sniffer traces anymore.

There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. -- John von Neumann

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