Estonia Prepares for Repeat of Cyberattacks on Anniversary

Estonia is bracing itself for a repeat of the internet attacks which nearly brought its government to a halt last year, the Guardian has learned.

Last April hackers bombarded the Estonia's hi-tech computer systems after a controversial decision to move a Soviet memorial. The cyber strikes crippled many public services.

With the anniversary of the attacks looming, senior officials are preparing for a repeat performance. One official said there had been many smaller attempts to hack into government systems during the last 12 months but they were not as organized or successful as last year's attacks.

A 20-year-old Estonian, Dmitri Galushkevich, has been arrested in relation to those attacks and was fined £880. But Estonian sources say the strikes originated largely from across the country's eastern border.

Those attacks prompted speculation that computer hacking was being widely used as a weapon, not just espionage. Such feelings were compounded when it emerged that another group of organized hackers - known by investigators as Titan Rain and believed to operate from inside China - had launched a series of strikes against western governments.

The UK, US and Germany were among the countries affected by Titan Rain, leading Nato to make a fresh commitment to prioritize cyber defence alongside other forms of national protection.

The finalization of the establishment of a center for cyber defence in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, was among the hi-tech defence plans discussed at last month's Nato summit in Bucharest.

"We have seen more of these attacks and we don't think this problem will disappear soon. Unless globally supported measures are taken, it can become a global problem," Suleyman Anil, the head of Nato's computer incident response center in Brussels, said last month.