President Putin has been accused of waging cyber war against Estonia in a dispute that threatens a new confrontation between Russia and Nato. The issue is expected to be raised at today’s EU-Russia summit.

Estonia said that its websites and computer systems had come under massive “cyber attack” after the dispute with Moscow over the removal of a Second World War monument to the Red Army in the capital, Tallinn.

Urmas Paet, the Foreign Minister, in an interview with The Times, accused the Kremlin of direct involvement in efforts to disrupt the Estonia Government and economy. Targets have included the websites of Estonia’s President and parliament and most government ministries and political parties.

Banks, mobile phone networks and news organisations have also been hit. Estonia’s second-biggest bank, the Swedish-owned SEB Eesti Uhispank, was forced to block access to its online services from outside the country after its computers came under attack on Tuesday.

The cyber attacks involved “bombing” websites with tens of thousands of visits with the intention of overloading their servers and forcing the computers to crash. Experts traced the internet protocol (IP) addresses that identify individual computers back to systems used by Russian authorities.

“When there are attacks coming from official IP addresses of Russian authorities and they are attacking not only our websites but our mobile phone network and our rescue service network, then it is very dangerous.” Mr Paet said.

“They are sending huge levels of stuff through the networks so that our different servers will crash. The largest part of these attacks are from Russia and from official servers of the authorities of Russia.” Russia has rejected the allegations.

But the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn released a list of internet addresses to The Times identifying the government departments in Moscow whose computers were used to attack the website of Estonia’s President.

The unprecedented computer attacks have brought cyber-terrorism experts from Nato to Estonia, anxious about the implications for operational security. Estonia is a member of the military alliance and Jaak Aaviksoo, the Defence Minister, has raised the issue with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato Secretary-General.

It will be discussed at a Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels next month. Mr de Hoop Scheffer said: “Recent events have shown that no member state is protected from cyber attacks.”

Military sources said that the electronic attacks on Estonia could have had a devastating impact because the country was overdependent on the internet.

The attacks continued yesterday, although counter-measures to protect Estonia’s most sensitive computer systems appeared to be working. One source said: “It’s properly organised and is still coming in waves, targeting Estonia’s Government buildings, TV stations, the media and banking.” Nato developed a cyber-warfare defence capability in 2004 because of the perceived risk of electronic attacks against alliance members. Nato headquarters in Brussels has been attacked on numerous occasions but to no effect.

“Unlike Estonia, Nato’s computers have no physical connection, there is nothing to plug in, so they are not vulnerable to attacks,” one official said.

In 1999 Nato’s website came under electronic attack during the alliance’s air campaign against the Serbs in Kosovo, but experts stopped the attempt to cripple the computers.

Madis Mikko, the Estonian Defence Ministry spokesman, told Ekho Moskvy radio that the international community needed to agree a response to the threat. “If it is an attack by a group of people, it can be called terrorism, and if a government attacks with PCs instead of tanks or missiles, what should be done?” he said.

Hack attacks

—Hacking collective the Electronic Disturbance Theatre launched a denial of service attack on the US Defence Department’s website in 1998, holding what they called an “online sit-in” to publicise their support of the Zapatista rebels in Mexico. The Pentagon responded by disabling the attackers’ computers

—British student Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage, which raised $1 million (£500,000) by selling advertising space for $1 a pixel, was attacked by blackmailers last year

—Canadian hacker 17-year-old Mafiaboy used denial of service tactics to cripple key internet sites including Amazon and Yahoo in 2001. Reports claimed that he had caused $1.7 billion in damages, but this figure was later revised to $7.5 million

Source: Wired.com; ZDNet; The Register

Times Recommends

• Over the Wall
• Why Africa welcomes the ‘new colonialism’
• Which will come out on top: paper or gold?