Estonian defense official draws parallels between cold war, cyberthreats
25.04.2008
TALLINN, Apr 25, BNS - Speaking at a high-level domestic security conference in Washington D.C. in the United States, Lauri Almann, secretary-general of the Estonian Defense Ministry, drew a parallel between modern cyberthreats and the perception of threat during the cold war.
At the Govsec conference with nearly 3,000 participants he told his listeners that people had been aware of those threats, but preferred not to think about them every day.
"Looking at the recent attacks against the critical infrastructure in Great Britain, France and Germany, we can say that we have arrived in the age of cyberterrorism and perhaps even cyberwar," Almann said.
The secretary-general gave an overview of last year's cyberattacks and their wider political and economic context.
In his opinion the cyberattacks against Estonia could be regarded as an attack against the country's life style, which heavily relies on IT services.
Almann said that without timely and effective countermeasures the malicious activity in cyberspace could have ended very sadly for Estonia.
"In principle, the cyberattacks of 2007 against Estonia showed that the Internet has already become a perfect battleground of the 21st century," he added.
The secretary-general said that in order to cope with the threats coming from cyberspace countries should apply an approach embracing the whole society.
It should be both horizontal, embracing cooperation between state agencies, the private sector, the third sector and international cooperation, as well as vertical, extending from the level of the state to the individual.
Almann added that more attention should be paid to the legal aspects of cybercrime.
"We may change our habitual lifestyle, controling the spread of IT solutions on security considerations, but in a way fitting for an open and democratic society we could rather unite out forces and create cybersecurity measures against those who want to disturb our life style, he said.
Almann and and Christian-Marc Lieflander, acting deputy secratary-general for defense policy also visited the US State Department.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee
 
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