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Georgia, Russia Engaged In Cyber War
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-08-12
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Sites for Georgia fled the country in favor of hosting elsewhere as numerous DDOS attacks from Russia took out Georgian web properties.
 | | Georgia, Russia Engaged In Cyber War |  |
In looking at the ongoing digital conflict taking place, it appears if there is a World War 3, some of it will focus on shutting down the infrastructure and resources of the adversary. Rather than oil refineries, the targets will be systems and networks, shelled electronically.
Dancho Danchev wrote at length about the current, ongoing conflict. He noted how the attacks on national servers, many of which fell into being controlled by the Russians, happened before armed conflict started.
News from the Georgian side came from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but not from the official website. The agency decamped for a presence on Blogger as its local networks crumbled under the assault.
The aims of the attackers go beyond disabling sites. Danchev showed how in one example, hackers altered the official site for the Georgian president, by putting up a slideshow comparison of Mikheil Saakashvili and Adolf Hitler.
"It smells like a three letter intelligence agency's propaganda arm has managed to somehow supply the creative for the defacement of Georgia President's official web site," Danchev said, suggesting government backing from Russia in at least one of the attacks.
He also observed several aspects of the digital invasion. In particular, distribution of lists of targets, and the provision of easy to use tools to overwhelm Georgian sites came into play.
It adds up to a combined, though not necessarily coordinated, Russian assault in cyberspace. With any luck, US military and electronic experts are learning from what is taking place, and planning accordingly should America become the target of potential enemies like Russia or China in a future war.
Things have cooled down in the real world, with Russia halting military action against Georgia. On the Net, the war continues.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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