Estonia taken hostage by cyber terrorists

Estonia, one of the Baltic States, is held hostage by a DDOS attack against many governmental web servers. Officials in Estonia claims the attacks originate from Russia. Russia, as usual, denies commenting.

What called the attack? The moving of a statue in downtown Tallinn. In other words, what most of us would think as nothing worth caring about. Obviously, someone disagrees.

I have been arguing that terrorists and criminals are moving in the direction of direct attacks. An increasing number of companies are being held hostage to DDOS, spammers and virus. But this is the first time one European nation attacks another using cyber technology.

Most likely the attacks were not an official one, but executed by rouge officers. It looks like they where more an angry reaction that a true attack. It did stir up a number of reactions, and I am certain there are quite a few Russians who enjoyed the attack.

The attack also made a few political comments and worries in EU. Still, Estonia is a small country, and Russia has a lot of gas and oil. Chances are the diplomatic channels are running hot at the moment. I also believe Putin to enjoy the fuzz. After all, it is a great opportunity to try out cyber war, right?

This kind of taking a hostage easily applies to companies too. It is easy enough to set up, and a demonstration can easily be executed to demonstrate your power. You name your price, they pay up. Both parties are happy. Business as usual, right?

What can we do to avoid these hostage series in the future? How can we prepare ourselves to the unenviable? What are the steps to secure your business in the future?