A "little" problem in Georgia

Coincidentally coinciding with the opening of the Beijing Olympic games this week, Russia started a "little" conflict with the breakaway republic of Georgia.

When the USSR collapsed in 1991, Georgia proclaimed it independance and ever since has made loud noises to join NATO and the West, adopting free market and democratic reforms. In 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president. Georgia even committed 2,000+ troops to the Iraq War, stationed on the Iran/Iraq border.

What is interesting about this conflict, other than the Russkies inflaming the ol' Cold War enmities, was the Russians use of cyber warfare. In particular, they targeted Georgian government websites, hijacking them, or simply hammering them with so many requests that they went down. They did this specifically to deny the ability to the Georgians to get accurate information out about what was really happening, and given the reports that the Russkies were bombing civilian targets and a major port, this was perhaps to avoid international condemnation, although the Soviets aren't really known to care too much about what the rest of the world thinks.

And whilst the techniques employed weren't exactly new, the sophistication and aggressiveness of the cyber attack suggest very strongly that this was a government operation. Previously, these types of cyber-conflict were always conducted at arms length, where agressor countries could claim it was the work of hackers infused with nationalistic fervour, but this operation was degrees of magnitude bigger than that.

Hijacked: Those wily Russkies had essentially hijacked all Internet communications into Georgia. They had effected a cyber-seige. They were able to deface government websites, inserting the graphic below. (The other guy is Saakashvili).

Picture that defaced some Georgian Government websites this week.
The guy you don't recognise is the president of Georgia

This kind of psy-ops could only be cooked up, as one pundit said, by a certain three letter spy agency.

10 years ago, no one would have cared or even known if a government website had gone down. Nowadays, it is on the frontline of any conflict, and people notice immediately.

Links:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1670
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10014150-83.html