Estonia suffered, on Wednesday, August 17, a series of computer attacks claimed by the Russian hacking group Killnet, the political authorities of the Baltic state indicated this Thursday, August 18. “Estonia yesterday suffered the biggest cyberattacks since 2007,” Estonian Undersecretary for Digital Transformation Luukas Ilves said on Twitter. “Attempted DDoS attacks have targeted both public institutions and the private sector,” he said.
According to the Estonian deputy secretary, these attacks were ineffective. “E-Estonia remains operational. Services have not been interrupted,” he said. The head of the institution responsible for the management of security incidents in Estonian computer networks (CERT), Tonu Tammer, specified the nature of the objectives. These include the websites of the police, the government, and a logistics company. However, these cyberattacks caused very little disruption.
Tensions over a Soviet-era monument
Russian hacking group Killnet, which is behind the cyberattacks, says it acted in retaliation for Estonia’s dismantling of a Soviet-era World War II memorial this week. The Baltic state had decided to remove a Soviet T-34 tank from its base in Narva, a border town where a large Russian-speaking minority lives, and move it to the War Museum.
The government has accused Russia of using such monuments to provoke tensions. Estonia, like neighboring Latvia, has a large Russian-speaking minority that sometimes remains at odds with the national government. Some fear that Moscow seeks to exploit these differences to destabilize these countries, both members of the European Union and NATO.
Source: BFM TV
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