World May Learn From 'Cyberwar' In Estonia

A cyberattack that overwhelmed computers in Estonia may teach other nations how vulnerable the world is in the Internet age, a U.S. official said.

"This may well turn out to be a watershed in terms of widespread awareness of the vulnerability of modern society," Linton Wells II, a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon told The New York Times. "It has gotten the attention of a lot of people."

Experts from the United States, NATO, the European Union and Israel went to Tallinn, Estonia, to help and to study the attack that nearly crippled the Estonia's government computer system and also targeted the country's banks and newspapers.

Estonian officials claimed the attack was apparently in response to the April removal of a memorial statue to Soviet soldiers in World War Two and have said the attack appeared to come from Russia.

The Russian government has denied involvement in the so-called cyberwar and has not offered any help in tracking down its perpetrators, the Times reported.

The attacks have slowed and have recently targeted banks, the newspaper reported. (c) UPI

Estonia says the country's websites have been under heavy attack for the past three weeks, blaming Russia for playing a part in the cyber warfare.

Many of the attacks have come from Russia and are being hosted by Russian state computer servers, Tallinn says. Moscow denies any involvement.