Estonia

Virtual song fest marks 'E-Stonian' independence

Independence day celebrations are typically marked with national anthems, but Estonia--sometimes called "E-Stonia" for its tech prowess--kicked the tradition up a few octaves Friday evening with a digital music festival that linked singers the world over.

The event honored the 19th anniversary of the country's post-Soviet independence, brought on by several years of non-violent events known as the "Singing Revolution." Choirs and individual singers from 100 locations across the Baltic nation connected online with crooners (and conductors) at the main venue--Friendship Park in the central Estonian town of Poltsamaa. The event streamed live on Estonian … Read more

Hundreds of speakers form sound sculpture

My friend Michael Trei sent me these amazing photos he shot at the Art Museum of Estonia. "The Wave," by Villu Jaanisoo, is a sculpture with hundreds of working speakers that play the sounds of ocean waves. Better yet, the sounds move across the sculpture like a wave.

Michael is a pretty serious audiophile, and he was impressed by the sound, so it must be good. I think it looks amazing.

The speakers are powered by amplifiers that Jaanisoo collected over many years.

"Wave" was completed for the opening exhibition of the Kalhama Gallery in 2008.… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 872: Butt-squeezing death trap

It's a racy Buzz Out Loud as Natali Del Conte and Molly Wood double-team Jason Howell. Yes, by the way, that was the most blatant click-bait I've ever written. We discuss who's the bigger liar: Google or the Wall Street Journal. Plus, mobile news galore, including FCC approval of the Garmin Nuviphone. And then it gets too hot to remain in the studio and we flee to cooler climates.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 872

Does Google want Net priority? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929270127905065.html http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/12/net-neutrality-and-benefits-of-caching.html … Read more

Estonia votes to vote by phone

Citizens in Estonia can now vote with their cell phones.

Parliament in Estonia voted on Thursday in favor of a measure that would allow citizens to vote via mobile phone in the next Parliamentary election (in 2011), according to the Associated Press.

Estonia has a history of being tech-forward. In 2005, it became the first country to offer online voting for a national election--although only about 1 percent of the votes cast that year were made online. In that election, people were required to insert their nationally-mandated ID cards into readers attached to their computers so their identity could … Read more

Estonia posts its cybersecurity strategy

Eighteen months after a denial-of-service attack, the Estonian Ministry of Defense has posted a detailed report (PDF) on the attacks. While focusing on specific steps the nation needs to take to prevent another attack, the report contains global recommendations as well.

In May 2007, the Baltic nation experienced a series of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks as a result of its government's decision to relocate a statue honoring an unknown Russian person killed during World War II. At Black Hat in 2007, security expert Gadi Evron said the attacks were not directed by the Russian Federation, or any government entity; he … Read more

Infected U.S. PCs may have attacked Georgia

When political tensions flared last month between Georgia and its large neighbor to the north, the country was ready to block Internet traffic from Russia, hoping to avoid the denial-of-service attacks that shut down Internet service in Estonia for several days in 2007. Instead, most of the DoS attacks that were directed against Georgia came from an unlikely place: the United States.

"Russia is one of the most capable countries when it comes to launching system intrusion hacking attempts, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and operation of botnets," said Don Jackson, director of Threat Intelligence for SecureWorks. "Yet you'll notice the number of attacks coming from Russia are very low."

SecureWorks on Monday released a list ranking the countries with the most infected computers enlisted for use with botnets. On that list, Russia ranks 7th, far behind the United States, China, Brazil, South Korea, Poland, and Japan. The reason Russia is so low, Jackson said, is that hackers from Russia don't attack from within Russia.

Instead of attacking using Russian IP addresses, Jackson said, the hackers who wanted to attack Georgia used "computers and control servers located in Turkey while the bots (the infected computers) that they controlled were mostly in the United States." … Read more

Russia and Georgia continue attacks--online

Researchers studying botnets have reported an increase in attacks on Georgian Web sites, including that of the country's president, within the last two weeks. While the attacks--Web site defacement and denial-of-service packet floods--are reminiscent of the Internet attacks waged against Estonia in May 2007, Jose Nazario, security researcher for Arbor Networks, told CNET News that he's seeing evidence that Georgia is apparently fighting back, attacking at least one Moscow-based newspaper site.

As to the source, Nazario said that "almost all of the attacks are broadly and globally sourced. One attack appears to be very narrowly focused, possibly … Read more

Hundreds of Lithuanian Web sites defaced

Last weekend, several hundred Lithuanian Web sites were defaced with pro-Soviet and anti-Lithuanian slogans, according to The New York Times.

Last Friday, Lithuanian government sites were warned of an impending Web attack and mounted appropriate defenses. Several hundred commercial sites did not do so and over the weekend took the brunt of the attack. By Monday, most all of the sites had been restored.

As with last year's Estonian denial-of-service attacks, the new attacks appear to be in reaction to a law outlawing the display of Soviet symbols in Lithuania. Germany has similar laws outlawing the display of Nazi … Read more

The Estonia cyberwar: One year later

One year ago, the Estonian government moved a war memorial honoring Russian-Estonians who died fighting the Nazis, a move that may have triggered what some believe is the first instance of a sustained, international cyberwar.

Now, Gadi Evron, a former Israeli Government CERT manager who was in Estonia at the time of the attacks, has revisited the events with an article in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and reprinted here online (PDF).

Evron said what could be described as a "flash mob" created the disturbances in the Estonian Internet during May 2007. "Not only did the … Read more