Cyber attacks

1
Cyber Attacks in Modern Conflicts A Case Study of
the Cyber Attacks Against Estonia in 2007 Rain
Ottis Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of
Excellence
2
Agenda

• Overview of events
• Defensive actions
• Lessons learned

3
Background

• Bronze Soldier statue
• e-services

4
Overview

• 26-27.04 Riots in Tallinn
• 27.04 18.05 Cyber attacks

5
Motivation

• Propaganda
• Calls and (detailed) instructions to attack
  Estonia on the Internet
• ???????, ?????????? ??????????? DoS-????? ?? ????
  ?? ????????????? http//www.riik.ee/et/
  ??????????? ??? ????? - ??????? ? ???? -
  ??????????? - ????????? ??????, ? ???????????
  ???? ????? ping -n 5000 -l 1000
  http//www.riik.ee
• ?? ??? ?? ????????? 5 ???????? ??????????
  ???????.

6
Attack methods

• Defacements
• E-mail and comment spam
• DoS and DDoS attacks
• Manual attacks
• Botnets
• Some exploits and hacking

7
Targets

• Political
• Public government servers
• Services
• ISP-s
• Banks
• On-line media
• People and businesses
• Random attacks

8
Associated events

• Political propaganda
• Embassy siege in Moscow
• Indirect economic sanctions

9
Defensive actions

• Cooperation
• CERT-EE and volunteers
• International cooperation
• Political
• Media
• Law enforcement
• Only one attacker identified so far
• Technical

10
Possible explanations

• Grass roots campaign
• False flag operation
• Direct information operation
• Indirect information operation
• Peoples War
• Govt. provides motivation and protection from
  legal sanctions

11
Lessons learned

• NOT just a technical problem
• Cooperation is key
• Attack attribution may be impossible
• Very few active countermeasures
• Cyber attacks are easy to organize
• and you could be next
• Internet is being militarized

12
Thank you!