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DDoS attacks on Estonia: was the Kremlin really
to blame?

Was the Russian government really behind the DDoS attacks on Estonia – or was it a more problematic enemy?

The 2007 distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Estonia were widely blamed on the Russian government – leading to allegations that the Kremlin was waging “cyber war” on the small Baltic republic.

But while there is evidence that some of the cruder DDoS attacks originated from computers used by Russian government agencies, internet security experts believe there were other forces behind the cyber attack. And, perhaps worryingly for the world’s governments, it was probably a greyer, less specific and more problematic enemy.

Russians not behind DDoS attacks say Estonians
Hillar Aarelaid, chief security officer for Estonia’s Computer Emergency Response team, has already expressed scepticism that the attacks were made by the Russian government. He noted that the moving of the Soviet war memorial – the incident that sparked the DDoS storm – even divided Estonians themselves.

Another internet expert was quoted as saying the DDoS attacks were as likely to be from “a group of bot herders showing 'patriotism’," – ie, the attacks may have been from Russia, but not government-sponsored.

DDoS PCs could have been taken over by hackers
And yet another expert said that “The fact that DDoS attacks may be coming from Russian authority computers does not necessarily mean that the Russian authorities have endorsed the attacks. Indeed, it's quite possible that these are PCs which have been taken over by remote hackers."

Investigators have found evidence that while Russian hackers may be involved, malicious activity also came from computers in the USA, Brazil, Canada and Vietnam. And when hackers create an army – or botnet – of infected computers to launch a DDoS attack, they target every computer everywhere in the world – making every IP address recorded in the attack worthless in terms of laying blame at someone’s door.

Putin’s government accused in DDoS attacks
At the time, NATO sent IT experts to Estonia to observe proceedings, with senior officials at the defence organisation accusing Vladimir Putin’s Russian government of effectively committing acts of war against the Estonia.

If the DDoS attacks actually came from hundreds or thousands – or even just dozens – of upset Russian citizens, however, the nation’s “enemies” suddenly become a lot more nebulous.

Bringing down a nation’s governmental, legal or judicial websites, as the Estonian DDoS attacks did, could definitely be construed as an act of war. But when the perpetrators are ordinary citizenry, dispersed all around the world, and very difficult to track down, fighting the “enemy” becomes much more difficult.

DDoS: prevention better than cure
Prevention is better than the cure, as it so often is. Governments, like companies of all sizes, can take steps to protect their network against DDoS attacks. And given the amount of GDP most countries would happily expend on their defence, it would not be prohibitively expensive to do so.

Webscreen is an IT network security technology designed to protect web servers and other network appliances from a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). Its unique Guarantee of Service (GoS) technology lessens the impact of denial of service (DDoS) attacks and lets IT managers maintain access for critical system users and important customers during periods of high network activity.

Webscreen also includes a range of network optimisation and monitoring tools to help deliver maximum performance from your network infrastructure resources. To find out more, call 0870 3890022.