Estonia accuses Russia of botnet attacks

Reports from the digital front: The government of Estonia this week declared that it had been the first country to “fall victim to a virtual war,” the New York Times reported, naming Russia as the certain culprit of various botnet attacks that disabled numerous government computers. “If you have a missile attack against, let’s say, an airport, it is an act of war,” said a spokesman for the Estonian Defense Ministry. “If the same result is caused by computers, then how else do you describe that kind of attack?” According to authorities in Estonia — which likes to call itself E-stonia due to its large effort to digitize government operations — the attacks also effected newspapers, schools, and banks. Despite Estonian claims that the attacks had been traced back to computers owned by the Russian government, Russian officials denied the charges. Analysts, however, see the attack as a clear sign of intimidation by Russia, which in recent weeks has been mired in a dispute with Estonia over the disposition of a World War II-era monument to a Russian soldier — a dispute that also prompted Russia to cut off rail service with the former Soviet republic.