TALLINN, SPECIAL ENVOY - There once was a small republic in northern shores washed by the gray waters of the Baltic. Estonia, a wilderness, a thousand lakes, forests full of game covered with fir and birch. Once freed from the grip of its neighbor Russia, which occupied the last fifty years - and forbade its residents to own a typewriter, a fax machine or computer - the country toppled in a coup modernity .
With the development of the Internet and thanks to some engineering programs - to which we owe the Skype softphone - Estonians were connected to a forced march. With their mobile phone with a simple click, they could soon pay their bills, do their tax returns, create a business, consult the Land Registry and even elect their mayor and their member ...
In the mid-2000s, when Estonia This confetti population of less than 1.4 million people, joined the European Union and NATO, its GDP growing at an insolent over 10% per year. But this ideal state to modernity was vulnerable. In May 2007, when the government decided to move the bronze statue of the soldier "liberating" Red Army which stands in the center of the capital to install at the periphery, the Russian-speaking minority - a third of the population - showed dissatisfaction.
Riots broke out in Tallinn to Moscow, the Estonian embassy was surrounded by an angry mob. Then the servers main public and private institutions in the country were attacked, and progressively blocked by millions of requests. The first cyber war in history had begun. "These attacks in waves, lasted three weeks," recalls Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Defence of the time and still working today.
I had no access to news sites or my bank. Then I I realized that this offensive was to paralyze the political infrastructure, economic and financial Estonia. Our state was the target of an attack, orchestrated and planned. " At the time, Raul Rikk exercised his computer skills to the Ministry of Defence.
"Imagine a toll highway is congested with thousands of vehicles from all over. It's kind of what happened when the Estonian information superhighway. The servers were bombarded with requests - one hundred times as many of usual. They were flooded and collapsed under the blows of DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, distributed denial of service], from around the world.
" If hackers were of Russian origin, the attacks came from computers located in a hundred countries. "The attackers used a 'botnet', says Raul Rikk, as was the case, there is little in the attacks suffered by the French finance ministry, the Quai d'Orsay and the Elysee approach G20. This is a network of computers infected by bots like virus Trojan: unbeknownst to their owners, hackers had taken control of thousands of machines across News Tech Buzz.
" These computers, called "zombies", succeeded in temporarily blocking the main websites of the small Baltic republic. Raul Rikk now working for private enterprise Trustcorp, which sends him regularly in Georgia, another state that has suffered a cyber attack from Russia: Before you physically invade the country in August 2008, the Kremlin had used the services of hackers to cripple the Georgian servers.
The Tbilisi authorities Rikk explains how, facing the same situation in 2007, he and his colleagues have managed to loosen the noose around sensitive sites in Estonia. "We had to lock some of the traffic, reroute the most important services - including banks - to other Internet addresses that were not targeted by the attacks.
And secure the cooperation of the countries from which some Computers were used as zombies by hackers. Providers of Internet access in Estonia and abroad, we asked to block the addresses they harbored suspicious. "A serious warning on the desk of Jaak Aaviksoo enthroned two computers it is forbidden to photograph Front: one is connected to the Internet, the other is connected to a parallel network dedicated to national defense and military integration of Estonia into NATO.
Jaak Aaviksoo ensures that the network was not secure damaged by the attacks of 2007. It would be tested and improved every day, as the server that manages the country's electricity network. Despite these precautions and response organized by Raul Rikk and his colleagues, the Estonian economy was hit hard by the attacks 2007: tens of millions of dollars went up in smoke, banks recorded heavy losses.
Cyberwar was no longer a science fiction scenario. For a nation also connected - Estonians use the Internet for the most common acts of everyday life and major infrastructure works with systems connected to the Internet - was a serious warning. The government took lessons. Estonia approached NATO: with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland is now part of the protection plan Guardian Eagle military attack against Russia.
But authorities have also established specific defenses. "With the ministries of interior, justice, telecommunications and private sector stakeholders, we developed a comprehensive plan to fight against computer attacks," Jaak Aaviksoo advance. This colossus inscrutable face and hands as big as bats command an army of six thousand men.
It was he who conceived and helped to pass in 2008, national strategies for the most sophisticated cyber world. It aims to ensure the continued functioning of the state and major public and private services in the event of another attack. CREATING A CYBER DEFENCE CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team, Team Computer Emergency Response) is the first link in this line of defense.
"It's like the central fire station fire: it records the alarms and collects information on network traffic it handles," Raul Rikk told me in 2007, during my first visit to CERT, Tallinn when he was still in its infancy. Since then, this organization has strengthened considerably and has hired new experts, as Tarmo Randel.
This is the archetypal geek: indeterminate age, glasses askew, hair informs, he wears suspenders and a T-shirt on which is written "e-Stonier" in green neon. At his side before the smiling Katrin Pärgmäe, head of communications center, including the blue turtleneck and a pale face contrasting with her hair dyed red.
Tarmo Randel and his colleagues constantly scrutinize the flow of the Web, in case of overheating, they reduce the risk of blockage. How? "By communicating with the providers so that they do the household if we detect a 'malware [malicious software], worm or computer virus," said Randel.
He also claims that CERT receives the collaboration of "organizations" - as a Shadow Center (shadow), he finally let go of the name after a few seconds of hesitation - who submit Internet addresses " detrimental "to Estonia. In September 2009, the Estonian Informatics Centre, the agency that oversees and hosts the CERT has developed a new structure: the CIIP (Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, Infrastructure Protection of sensitive information).
Its mission is to protect the most important computer networks in the country, both public and private. As part of the cyber defense strategy, a budget of around 12 million euros has been earmarked to strengthen the security of these systems. In case of attack, the CIIP coordinate the actions of defense.
"This is crucial, insists Katrin Pärgmäe. The country must continue to live normally, if not fear and anarchy would spread quickly. "The data center meets regularly the local elite in digital security: analysts, experts, system administrators, lawyers, political and regulators share information and experiences at seminars, meals ...
and sauna sessions: the steam baths and ice free speech of the participants, those "good Estonians" are partly the cause at first, Katrin Pärgmäe note. "We the chance to be a small country and we all know. It helps, "said Tarmo Randel. Cyber League - a branch of the Defence League, the organization of Estonian reservists - provide them with valuable support: It also promotes cooperation between stakeholders.
Training and Communication is the other side of the defense doctrine computer Estonia. The security of the Internet has been declared a national priority. It must be said that over 60% of the daily logs. Here at school primary school, children learn to surf smarter. For parents, it is recommended to monitor their children when she ventures onto the Web.
At the National Defense College as the best universities in the country, in Tartu for example, teaches safety electronic, we break the infected software and study the legal aspects of cyber defense. Training is also offered to politicians and businessmen. Katrin Pärgmäe organized several prevention campaigns: TV spots, some are quite frightening, warn against the nuisance of the Web and its pitfalls.
They recommend not respond to spam, install anti-virus to protect its Wi-Fi Now with Tarmo, she contributed to the achievement of "IT Planet", the first television series dedicated to the history computer security. Flags flapping in the sea wind, the snow falls thick and covers the rooftops of the barracks built in 1905 for communications experts of Tsar Nicolas II - it was in the days of telegraph and carrier pigeons.
Under Soviet rule, this base was the headquarters of the Corps in charge of SAMs. In 1993 it was reinvested by the Estonian army and one of its wings, a short distance from the military cemetery (where was eventually moved the statue of the soldier of the Red Army), now hosts the elite Estonian Cyber Defence: the NATO CCDCOE (Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence Centre of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defence NATO), the "K5", as termed by Estonians.
Unlike the Ministry of Defence, which is not even a sentry on duty, the place is heavily guarded. To enter, you must make an appointment, give his passport number of weeks in advance and show their credentials at the entrance. The center has been operational since August 2008. Eight nations, including Germany, Italy and Spain are members, Turkey and the U.S.
should soon join them, France thinks. In cooperation with the Estonian armed forces and the government's cybersecurity division, as it hosts the civil and military, the member states. Among them, Col. Ilmar Tamm Estonian, who heads the center, and Lt. Col. Italian Marco Falco. "After the land, sea, air and space, cyberspace is now the fifth field of battle," says Col.
Tamm. He and his men work including the doctrine of NATO defense digital, which will be presented in June. In spring 2010, with the Swedish Defense College, teams Latvian, Lithuanian and Swedish, and Estonian Defence League and NATO, the K5 has organized the exercise "Baltic cyberbouclier", a huge simulation in which Five teams were defending white Internet networks attacked by a red team of hackers.
"It was an operation very realistic," welcomes the Lieutenant-Colonel De Falco. The man is an expert in threats of all kinds: DDoS, "the most classic form of hacking," which do not seem to impress; targeted attacks which, thanks to the intrusion of malicious software, can take control of a computer and extract information; viruses, "logic bombs" ...
DETERRENCE DIGITAL "And what do you think of Stuxnet?" In the evocation of this worm just thirty miles infect computers in Iran, particularly affecting the Bushehr nuclear power plant, eyes suddenly light up the Italian military. He seems fascinated by the technological prowess. "It's an incredibly intelligent worm.
It helped change the speed of centrifuges Iran's program to enrich uranium for a year. Do you realize? Elegant, very elegant! I had never seen anything like it. The guys who designed it have genius and enormous human and financial resources. " Less enthusiastic, Col. Tamm, always under severe fines behind his glasses, does not hide his concern: it would only take a few minutes to worms as powerful and sophisticated than Stuxnet to sow chaos in any developed country.
The two soldiers said they had no idea what could be hiding behind this monster computer. Obviously. When asked about the dreaded cyberwarriors North Korean or Chinese, on the "hacktivists" the Kremlin and the Russian FSB or a potential terrorist threat in the networks, the two men embark on a long digression on the "white hackers" - the Good hackers.
But they will not speak of what some say is the secret mission of K5: to develop the equivalent of a nuclear weapon to cyberspace: a response by a blow so terrible that it would deter any state or terrorist group to attack the servers of the West ... Olivier Guez Also read in Tech Buzz News Magazine dated April 2, 2011: Cover story: "Bob Woodward, Confessions of a reporter elite." Heroes of investigative journalism, Bob Woodward discusses his working methods, his error on Iraq, etc..
Analysis: Presidential: we must leave on time. " While claiming the election of 2012 should declare sooner or later - and therein lies the problem: what is the best time? Portfolio: Tunisia displays his freedom. " Spurred by the photographer JR, giant portraits of Tunisians are plastered on the scene of the fallen power of Ben Ali.
Very symbolic. Photo report: "The FN ground gained. Keyser photographer France followed the campaign of the National Front in PACA, where the FN won his only two seats in the recent district elections. The report: "Estonia, cybersentinelle of the West." Visit the confines Baltic to Tallinn, which moved the center of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defence of NATO.
There, a small high-tech army is preparing for cyberwar. The meeting: "Six designers from the school of prehistory." Check out the Comics Festival in Bastia: "Cave!", An album born of dialogue with the masters of Lascaux or Niaux.
With the development of the Internet and thanks to some engineering programs - to which we owe the Skype softphone - Estonians were connected to a forced march. With their mobile phone with a simple click, they could soon pay their bills, do their tax returns, create a business, consult the Land Registry and even elect their mayor and their member ...
In the mid-2000s, when Estonia This confetti population of less than 1.4 million people, joined the European Union and NATO, its GDP growing at an insolent over 10% per year. But this ideal state to modernity was vulnerable. In May 2007, when the government decided to move the bronze statue of the soldier "liberating" Red Army which stands in the center of the capital to install at the periphery, the Russian-speaking minority - a third of the population - showed dissatisfaction.
Riots broke out in Tallinn to Moscow, the Estonian embassy was surrounded by an angry mob. Then the servers main public and private institutions in the country were attacked, and progressively blocked by millions of requests. The first cyber war in history had begun. "These attacks in waves, lasted three weeks," recalls Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Defence of the time and still working today.
I had no access to news sites or my bank. Then I I realized that this offensive was to paralyze the political infrastructure, economic and financial Estonia. Our state was the target of an attack, orchestrated and planned. " At the time, Raul Rikk exercised his computer skills to the Ministry of Defence.
"Imagine a toll highway is congested with thousands of vehicles from all over. It's kind of what happened when the Estonian information superhighway. The servers were bombarded with requests - one hundred times as many of usual. They were flooded and collapsed under the blows of DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, distributed denial of service], from around the world.
" If hackers were of Russian origin, the attacks came from computers located in a hundred countries. "The attackers used a 'botnet', says Raul Rikk, as was the case, there is little in the attacks suffered by the French finance ministry, the Quai d'Orsay and the Elysee approach G20. This is a network of computers infected by bots like virus Trojan: unbeknownst to their owners, hackers had taken control of thousands of machines across News Tech Buzz.
" These computers, called "zombies", succeeded in temporarily blocking the main websites of the small Baltic republic. Raul Rikk now working for private enterprise Trustcorp, which sends him regularly in Georgia, another state that has suffered a cyber attack from Russia: Before you physically invade the country in August 2008, the Kremlin had used the services of hackers to cripple the Georgian servers.
The Tbilisi authorities Rikk explains how, facing the same situation in 2007, he and his colleagues have managed to loosen the noose around sensitive sites in Estonia. "We had to lock some of the traffic, reroute the most important services - including banks - to other Internet addresses that were not targeted by the attacks.
And secure the cooperation of the countries from which some Computers were used as zombies by hackers. Providers of Internet access in Estonia and abroad, we asked to block the addresses they harbored suspicious. "A serious warning on the desk of Jaak Aaviksoo enthroned two computers it is forbidden to photograph Front: one is connected to the Internet, the other is connected to a parallel network dedicated to national defense and military integration of Estonia into NATO.
Jaak Aaviksoo ensures that the network was not secure damaged by the attacks of 2007. It would be tested and improved every day, as the server that manages the country's electricity network. Despite these precautions and response organized by Raul Rikk and his colleagues, the Estonian economy was hit hard by the attacks 2007: tens of millions of dollars went up in smoke, banks recorded heavy losses.
Cyberwar was no longer a science fiction scenario. For a nation also connected - Estonians use the Internet for the most common acts of everyday life and major infrastructure works with systems connected to the Internet - was a serious warning. The government took lessons. Estonia approached NATO: with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland is now part of the protection plan Guardian Eagle military attack against Russia.
But authorities have also established specific defenses. "With the ministries of interior, justice, telecommunications and private sector stakeholders, we developed a comprehensive plan to fight against computer attacks," Jaak Aaviksoo advance. This colossus inscrutable face and hands as big as bats command an army of six thousand men.
It was he who conceived and helped to pass in 2008, national strategies for the most sophisticated cyber world. It aims to ensure the continued functioning of the state and major public and private services in the event of another attack. CREATING A CYBER DEFENCE CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team, Team Computer Emergency Response) is the first link in this line of defense.
"It's like the central fire station fire: it records the alarms and collects information on network traffic it handles," Raul Rikk told me in 2007, during my first visit to CERT, Tallinn when he was still in its infancy. Since then, this organization has strengthened considerably and has hired new experts, as Tarmo Randel.
This is the archetypal geek: indeterminate age, glasses askew, hair informs, he wears suspenders and a T-shirt on which is written "e-Stonier" in green neon. At his side before the smiling Katrin Pärgmäe, head of communications center, including the blue turtleneck and a pale face contrasting with her hair dyed red.
Tarmo Randel and his colleagues constantly scrutinize the flow of the Web, in case of overheating, they reduce the risk of blockage. How? "By communicating with the providers so that they do the household if we detect a 'malware [malicious software], worm or computer virus," said Randel.
He also claims that CERT receives the collaboration of "organizations" - as a Shadow Center (shadow), he finally let go of the name after a few seconds of hesitation - who submit Internet addresses " detrimental "to Estonia. In September 2009, the Estonian Informatics Centre, the agency that oversees and hosts the CERT has developed a new structure: the CIIP (Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, Infrastructure Protection of sensitive information).
Its mission is to protect the most important computer networks in the country, both public and private. As part of the cyber defense strategy, a budget of around 12 million euros has been earmarked to strengthen the security of these systems. In case of attack, the CIIP coordinate the actions of defense.
"This is crucial, insists Katrin Pärgmäe. The country must continue to live normally, if not fear and anarchy would spread quickly. "The data center meets regularly the local elite in digital security: analysts, experts, system administrators, lawyers, political and regulators share information and experiences at seminars, meals ...
and sauna sessions: the steam baths and ice free speech of the participants, those "good Estonians" are partly the cause at first, Katrin Pärgmäe note. "We the chance to be a small country and we all know. It helps, "said Tarmo Randel. Cyber League - a branch of the Defence League, the organization of Estonian reservists - provide them with valuable support: It also promotes cooperation between stakeholders.
Training and Communication is the other side of the defense doctrine computer Estonia. The security of the Internet has been declared a national priority. It must be said that over 60% of the daily logs. Here at school primary school, children learn to surf smarter. For parents, it is recommended to monitor their children when she ventures onto the Web.
At the National Defense College as the best universities in the country, in Tartu for example, teaches safety electronic, we break the infected software and study the legal aspects of cyber defense. Training is also offered to politicians and businessmen. Katrin Pärgmäe organized several prevention campaigns: TV spots, some are quite frightening, warn against the nuisance of the Web and its pitfalls.
They recommend not respond to spam, install anti-virus to protect its Wi-Fi Now with Tarmo, she contributed to the achievement of "IT Planet", the first television series dedicated to the history computer security. Flags flapping in the sea wind, the snow falls thick and covers the rooftops of the barracks built in 1905 for communications experts of Tsar Nicolas II - it was in the days of telegraph and carrier pigeons.
Under Soviet rule, this base was the headquarters of the Corps in charge of SAMs. In 1993 it was reinvested by the Estonian army and one of its wings, a short distance from the military cemetery (where was eventually moved the statue of the soldier of the Red Army), now hosts the elite Estonian Cyber Defence: the NATO CCDCOE (Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence Centre of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defence NATO), the "K5", as termed by Estonians.
Unlike the Ministry of Defence, which is not even a sentry on duty, the place is heavily guarded. To enter, you must make an appointment, give his passport number of weeks in advance and show their credentials at the entrance. The center has been operational since August 2008. Eight nations, including Germany, Italy and Spain are members, Turkey and the U.S.
should soon join them, France thinks. In cooperation with the Estonian armed forces and the government's cybersecurity division, as it hosts the civil and military, the member states. Among them, Col. Ilmar Tamm Estonian, who heads the center, and Lt. Col. Italian Marco Falco. "After the land, sea, air and space, cyberspace is now the fifth field of battle," says Col.
Tamm. He and his men work including the doctrine of NATO defense digital, which will be presented in June. In spring 2010, with the Swedish Defense College, teams Latvian, Lithuanian and Swedish, and Estonian Defence League and NATO, the K5 has organized the exercise "Baltic cyberbouclier", a huge simulation in which Five teams were defending white Internet networks attacked by a red team of hackers.
"It was an operation very realistic," welcomes the Lieutenant-Colonel De Falco. The man is an expert in threats of all kinds: DDoS, "the most classic form of hacking," which do not seem to impress; targeted attacks which, thanks to the intrusion of malicious software, can take control of a computer and extract information; viruses, "logic bombs" ...
DETERRENCE DIGITAL "And what do you think of Stuxnet?" In the evocation of this worm just thirty miles infect computers in Iran, particularly affecting the Bushehr nuclear power plant, eyes suddenly light up the Italian military. He seems fascinated by the technological prowess. "It's an incredibly intelligent worm.
It helped change the speed of centrifuges Iran's program to enrich uranium for a year. Do you realize? Elegant, very elegant! I had never seen anything like it. The guys who designed it have genius and enormous human and financial resources. " Less enthusiastic, Col. Tamm, always under severe fines behind his glasses, does not hide his concern: it would only take a few minutes to worms as powerful and sophisticated than Stuxnet to sow chaos in any developed country.
The two soldiers said they had no idea what could be hiding behind this monster computer. Obviously. When asked about the dreaded cyberwarriors North Korean or Chinese, on the "hacktivists" the Kremlin and the Russian FSB or a potential terrorist threat in the networks, the two men embark on a long digression on the "white hackers" - the Good hackers.
But they will not speak of what some say is the secret mission of K5: to develop the equivalent of a nuclear weapon to cyberspace: a response by a blow so terrible that it would deter any state or terrorist group to attack the servers of the West ... Olivier Guez Also read in Tech Buzz News Magazine dated April 2, 2011: Cover story: "Bob Woodward, Confessions of a reporter elite." Heroes of investigative journalism, Bob Woodward discusses his working methods, his error on Iraq, etc..
Analysis: Presidential: we must leave on time. " While claiming the election of 2012 should declare sooner or later - and therein lies the problem: what is the best time? Portfolio: Tunisia displays his freedom. " Spurred by the photographer JR, giant portraits of Tunisians are plastered on the scene of the fallen power of Ben Ali.
Very symbolic. Photo report: "The FN ground gained. Keyser photographer France followed the campaign of the National Front in PACA, where the FN won his only two seats in the recent district elections. The report: "Estonia, cybersentinelle of the West." Visit the confines Baltic to Tallinn, which moved the center of Excellence for Cooperative Cyber Defence of NATO.
There, a small high-tech army is preparing for cyberwar. The meeting: "Six designers from the school of prehistory." Check out the Comics Festival in Bastia: "Cave!", An album born of dialogue with the masters of Lascaux or Niaux.
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