Tag archive: Estonia

We think of this as a digital age, and in many ways it is. But perhaps not to the extent that we believe – a new EU report reveals that one in four Europeans has never used a computer, and one-third of all Europeans have never used the Internet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the least active online are the unemployed and those over 65. But a quarter of those who’ve never gone online say they can’t afford it, and one in three… Read More

If you thought you noticed a sharp drop in spam recently, you weren’t mistaken. When hosting service McColo was shut down, some big spam botnets found themselves without a home. But it’s set to creep back up again as the Srizbi botnet has found a new home. The Washington Post, whose investigation helped take down McColo, says part of the Trojan that’s infected the slave computers in the Srizbi botnet includes a formula… Read More

EstDomains isn’t popular among computer security people. The domain registrar is said by many to be the main registrar for domains associated with spam and cybercrime. As F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hypponen wrote: "They've been on our map for years as they've been the largest registrar used by online criminals for their domain name registration needs." But EstDomains might not be around too much… Read More

Sweden's TeliaSonera has announced it has reached an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone in several Nordic and Baltic nations later this year, including Sweden (of course), Norway, Denmark, and Finland, as well as the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. As with other recent announcement of deals with international mobile operators, the announcement was brief and offered no information on pricing, dates of… Read More

Last year Estonia suffered weeks of debilitating cyber attacks after it took down an old statue of a Russian Red Army soldier in its capital, Tallinn. The denial of service attacks that followed crashed computers in many government departments. Estonia blamed Russia, but Moscow has always denied any involvement. 12 months on from that event, a cyber defense hub has now opened in Estonia. It will be funded and staffed by seven Nato… Read More

Some of the world’s leading hackers have starkly warned that British high streets stores could become the next victims of cyberterrorism, claiming that it’s “only a matter oftime” before they’re on the receiving end of the kind of tactics that shut down the Estonian government not too long ago.   Speaking in a panel at last week’s InfoSecurity Europe conference, the hackers – who are now white hat… Read More

Last April and May a series of service attacks against Estonian government sites almost brought the small Baltic nation to a standstill. There was a belief that Russia was behind it all, in the wakeof Estonia removing a Soviet war memorial from its capital, and Nato was called in to investigate.   The real reason proved to be less sinister. The hackers were based in Estonia itself, and oneof them, Dmitri Galushkevich, was fined $1650 for… Read More

According to Internet security company McAfee in its Virtual Criminality Report, groups either allied to or from governments in up to 120 countries could beengaged in cyber spying or cyber attacks, creating as massive threat to Internet security.   One of the worst offenders is believed to be China. So far this year it’s believed to have beenbehind attacks on the US, India, New Zealand and Australia.   The McAfee report included… Read More

New figures released by Eurostat show that mobile phone subscriptions in the 27 EU states increased a staggering 14 times between 1996 and 2005. At the start of the period, the average was seven subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, but just nine years later it had increased to 96 for each 100. With 158 and 127 respectively, Luxembourg and Lithuania were top of the list, with Romania the lowest, having just 62 mobile subscriptions per 100… Read More

Reporters Without Frontiers have released their Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, and it highlights not only the problems with press freedom for traditional journalists around the globe, but also the threat to bloggers.   A number of countries have seen their rankings fall because of the way they’ve restricted or violated the freedom of bloggers. Several countries, like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Egypt, have arrested bloggers… Read More

NATO , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has concluded that cyberwarfare, especially cyberdefense, must become a priority among its 26 members.   The decision came at a meeting this week, following a concerted series of cyberattacks against member nation Estonia. Those began in April and lasted for several weeks. The supposed catalyst was Estonia removing a Soviet war memorial in its capital of Tallinn. The attacks were on the… Read More

Many commercial and government Internet sites in the Baltic nation of Estonia are being pummeled with online attacks—and the Estonian government says many of the attacks are being hosted by Russian servers. The attacks began three weeks ago shortly after Estonia relocated a Soviet-era World War II memorial in the Estonian capital of Talinn. The memorial's move was fiercely condemned by the Kremlin and some ethnic Russians… Read More

VoIP provider Skype has launched Skype Pro for European subscribers, combining popular features and zero-cost calling into a subscription package costing just €2 a month. "The combination of Skype's free features with Skype Pro is very compelling," said Stefan Oberg, VP & GM of Telecoms at Skype. "Along with zero per minute calling, Skype Pro includes free voicemail, a generous discount on SkypeIn numbers,… Read More