A significant development in the nature of warfare took place over the past month. Estonia, dubbed ‘eStonia‘ by observers due to its entrenchment within the world of information technology (two thirds of the country use internet banking, there’s free Wi-Fi at every gas station and even their national elections are conducted over the web) became the first country to suffer wide-ranging government-focused cyber-attacks, following which senior military officials raised a nervous finger and pointed at the Kremlin. The attacks took place following the controversial relocation of this statue of a Soviet soldier (along with the remains of the Soviet soldiers buried beneath it) from the centre of Tallinn to a cemetery on the outskirts of town. Riots followed, a Russian protestor was killed, the Estonian Ambassador to Moscow was attacked and within days the fabled web-strong infrastructure of Estonia started to suffer an intense and momentarily crippling assault.
The attacks came in multiple forms - overloaded web servers, published images of Soviet soldiers on government pages and a hacked fake message on the ruling party’s website seeking forgiveness for the statue fiasco – all of which would seem to suggest there was at least Russian motivation if not government involvement. The Kremlin has denied such dastardliness however, and the Estonian government has since lowered that nervous finger. Inherent in such online crime though is the hiding and faking of tracks and Estonia may never know – or at least be able to prove – who exactly is to blame, despite the contextual inference that may suggest otherwise.
Regardless of who carried out the attacks, they illustrate the susceptibility of developed and connected economies to the actions of what could potentially be a cyber-force of relatively small size, and are a window into the possible future of warfare and terrorism. As we immerse ourselves deeper and deeper within an online culture the infrastructure that provides our transactions, transport and communication becomes a weak-point that can be targeted by groups or nations that perhaps couldn’t summon the physical resources required to threaten us but are able to punch above their weight on an online battlefield…
On a lighter note, for those of you in the UK a NZ-centric site called Spacific has asked for volunteers to seek out the best London Flat White. I’m game and started my caffeine-addled tour of duty today at the fabulous Scooterworks shop and cafe (cheers Shay). I’ve got eleven more stores to visit in the next three weeks and am looking for coffee dates. If you have a personal favourite and perhaps know a little about the history or culture of a particular store that makes a good Flat White, drop me a line and let’s do coffee. My shout.