Russia Vs Georgia, The Online Front


While we’re sure that just about everyone has heard about the conflict between Russia and Georgia, few have probably heard about the role of cyber attacks in the conflict. Shortly before Russia’s armed response, Georgian state web servers were attacked by individuals assumed to be Russian hackers. This attack almost completely obliterated Georgia’s online presence by shutting down the website for the Ministry of Defense, and the Central Government’s main site. The Russian attackers seem to be using some form of sustained DDoS to keep many Georgian sites offline. In an effort to preserve some web presence, the Georgian Government transferred [President Mikheil Saakashvili]’s site to a US hosting provider in Atlanta. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs even created a BlogSpot page after their website initially went down. While politically motivated DDoS attacks have not been rare in past months, this seems to be the first time where the attacking party can be clearly identified. This seems to be the start of a trend where the unconventional methods of cyber warfare are used to gain an advantage over the enemy.

[photo: somefool]

19 thoughts on “Russia Vs Georgia, The Online Front

  1. It’s not ironic, captain ironic.
    What is ironic is that something that you said was ironic, is not in actuality ironic.
    Try looking up the definition in a dictionary.
    But it is kind of funny.

  2. Irony Lost,
    Is it unexpected that a country named Georgia would put up their site in a stat named Georgia?
    NO, it is a funny or amusing.
    It is however ironic that everyone trying to use irony correctly on this site is incorrectly using it. This is ironic because you would expect people defining/using irony to be able to define/use it, and this is not the case.
    Again, read a dictionary or even your own definition and then apply it to what captain ironic said.

  3. i tried watching georgian tv online to see how they’re covering the conflict but the stream was a trickle. might be russians ddosing georgian media to supress their message and it might just be that the country of georgia runs its network through a single linksys router and the increased attention has swamped it. cycle power.

  4. @Mr. Mediocre,

    If you wanna go there, Russia is as just a “democratic nation” as Georgia – or the US for that matter.

    It’s been under a democratic system of government since the fall of the Union in 1991.

    Up-them-selves countries like the US like to miss-use the term “democratic” far too much in my opinion.

  5. this is not exactly the first time this has been documented. for example during israel’s last war against lebanon. not only were similar attacks perpetrated- but they also used massive text messaging as well. the I.D.F. would send a whole town telling them they would be bombed, and so send them running. they would then proceed to bomb their escape route.

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