New cold war for Estonia?

TALLINN -  Lauri Almann, secretary-general of the Estonian Defense Ministry, drew aparallel between modern cyberthreats and the perception of threat during thecold war in a high-level security conference in WashingtonD.C.earlier today.

"Looking at the recent attacks against the criticalinfrastructure in Great Britain,France and Germany, we can say that we havearrived in the age of cyberterrorism and perhaps even cyberwar," Almannsaid.

In his opinion the cyberattacks against Estoniacould be regarded as an attack against the country's life style, which heavilyrelies on information technology services.

Almann said that without timely and effectivecountermeasures the malicious activity in cyberspace could have ended verysadly for Estonia.

"In principle, the cyberattacks of 2007 against Estoniashowed that the Internet has already become a perfect battleground of the 21stcentury," he added.

The secretary-general said that in order to cope with thethreats coming from cyberspace countries should apply an approach embracing thewhole society.

Almann added that more attention should be paid to thelegal aspects of cybercrime.

"We may change our habitual lifestyle, controling thespread of IT solutions on security considerations, but in a way fitting for anopen and democratic society we could rather unite out forces and createcybersecurity measures against those who want to disturb our life style, hesaid.