Update (March 12, 2:17 am Pacific): Hillar Aarelaid points out to me in an email that this was reported almost two years ago in the Russian-language press. Google Translated version here.
By Charles Clover in Moscow
Published: March 11 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 11 2009 02:00Members of a Kremlin-backed youth movement have claimed responsibility for May 2007 cyber attacks that crippled Estonia’s internet in the midst of a diplomatic argument with Russia.
It is believed to have been the first attack of its kind, directed against virtually the entire informational infra-structure of a Nato country.
Estonian officials said the attacks originated in Russia. They began after April 27, when Estonia removed a second world war Soviet memorial from its capital, Tallinn, provoking a storm of protest from Moscow. They continued to mid May.
Russia has consistently denied any involvement. Yesterday, however, Konstantin Goloskokov, a “commissar” in the youth group Nashe, which works for the Kremlin, told the Financial Times that he and some associates had launched the attack, which appears to be the first time anyone has claimed responsibility.
“I wouldn’t have called it a cyber attack; it was cyber defence,” he said.
“We taught the Estonian regime the lesson that if they act illegally, we will respond in an adequate way.”
Another interesting article from .ru press – http://www.gzt.ru/world/2008/02/07/220025.html, Google’s translation of relevant part:
** The head of Russia’s Military Forecasting Center, Colonel Anatoly Tsyganok believes that cyber-attacks against Estonia did not violate any international agreements, because these simply do not. “These attacks have been quite successful, and today the alliance has nothing to oppose Russia’s virtual attacks – said in an interview Tsyganok« Gazeta ». – In principle, the loss of arms, NATO could be enormous if, as a result of such attacks bring down military computer management». **
Well, the “prognostics centre” of Tsyganok is quoted as “independent”, but he also appears to be member of some “public advisory board by the Russian ministry of defence”…