These July attacks may have been a "dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Russia," and represent the first such coordinated effort between a shooting war and cyber attacks---- but surely not the last.
When Russian troops began crossing into South Ossetia, various Georgian media, communications, power, and transportation companies were also attacked, including The National Bank of Georgia. Beginning the weekend of the 9th, American security researchers tracking botnets, said they saw evidence of a "shadowy St. Petersberg-based" criminal gang called R.B.N. (Russian Bsuiness Network) blasting Georgian computers with streams of useless data, creating overload. The botnets were set up and activated just before Russian air strikes began on Saturday. The government of Georgia blamed Russia, but the Russian government said it was not involved, hinting that private Russian citizens might have taken it upon themselves to harass Georgia, but offered no explanation for the uncanny timing of the attacks.
Georgia (population 4.6 million) is still a newbie in integrating the Internet into its society, ranking 74th out of 234 nations in terms of Internet addresses, so it suffered only limited problems as a result of the attack. Such an attack would have far greater impact on an "Internet-dependent" country like the United States, Israel, or even Estonia.
These cyber attacks are not only easy to mount, leaving few fingerprints, but are also incredibly inexpensive. "It costs about 4 cents per machine," according to Bill Woodcock, research director at Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit which tracks Internet traffic, adding that "You could fund an entire cyberwarfare campaign for the cost of replacing a tank tread, so you'd be foolish not to."
This report raises several points in my mind. For starters: obviously, the Americans knew something was up, since for national security reasons of our own we monitor "chatter" and the Internet traffic... so just how surprised were we really by the Russian attack on Georgia? Admittedly, it's hard to pick out just what is going on from such a high volume of activity, but if this stymies our using the data to figure out what's up, why are we doing it? While our President slumps in his seat at the Olympics, does everything else come to a halt? And, can we not assume this cyber attack was, shall we say, a dress rehearsal for future conflicts---- our side picked up on it fast enough, and presumably took notes. And cheap! What a convenient way to wage war and not bust the budget! Makes me wonder when Karl Rove and the Republicans will decide to employ the techniques politically, an updated Watergate break-in. Or, maybe they already have.
Welcome to the future, though. Electronic assaults precede real ones.
Monitoring the internets? We could see the tanks.
But one thing you need to realize is that these attacks can be made to look like they come from a particular computer when they actually come from somewhere else.
While the main actor here was clearly Putin and the nation state of Russia re-asserting itself---- not only is Russia Back, so is History Back---- and we now have stumblebum Bush blustering away about Georgian sovereignty, there is no doubt in my mind that oil and gas, i.e., energy, and corporations in that sector are heavily involved (on both sides). Who knows how much meddling the US engaged in with Georgia prior to their invading their so-called breakaway province? Why did the Georgians decide to use force of arms at this particular time? Did they expect more than humanitarian aid from the US? If so, why?