Wikileaks cable blames Russia for 2007 Estonian cyber attacks

  • 2010-12-08
  • TBT Staff

The cable claims that the attacks were a way for the Kremlin to test a "new weapon".

TALLINN - A cable recently leaked by Wikileaks has accussed Russia of orchestrating high-profile cyber attacks against a number of Estonian websites in 2007.

"... the probing nature of the attacks on specific government and strategic private sector targets through the use of anonymous proxies fit the modus operandi of the Putin regime testing a new 'weapon'," a Wikileaks cable published on the "Foreign Policy" website claims.

"You don't expect spontaneous, populist cyber attacks to have a pre-determined list of targets and precise dates and times for coordinated attacks," the cable quotes one analyst as saying.

In 2007 Estonia was subjected to cyber attacks on a massive scale, disrupting web traffic of both the government and the country's largest companies. Both Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Justice Minister Rein Lang have gone on record saying that some attacks were launched from computers with IP addresses linked to the Kremlin.

Some analysts, however - such as Gadi Evron, a security technologist for an Israel-based consultancy that compiled an official report for the Estonian government - claimed that the attacks were the result of an "Internet mob".

The cyber attacks followed widespread discontent among the Russian-speaking population over Estonia's decision to relocate a number of Soviet graves and a monument to a military cemetary.