Estonia

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. Financial Times: By Charles Clover in Moscow Published: March 11 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 11 2009 02:00 Members 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…

Estonian Declaration of Independence, 24 February 1918 MANIFESTO To All The Peoples of Estonia Never in the course of centuries have the Estonian people lost their ardent desire for Independence. From generation to generation Estonians have kept alive the secret hope that in spite of enslavement and oppression by other nations the time will come in Estonia “when all splinters, at both end, will burst forth into flames” and when “Kalev will come home to bring his children happiness.” Now…

I had the honor of being interviewed (again!) by Marco Werman on “The World” today to talk about the relationship of the Estonian economy to technology. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston –…

AFP, February 1 2009: But Estonia slid into recession in 2008 as rampant inflation dented domestic consumption. The global economic crisis compounded the bleak picture by hitting exports — as well as the tourist trade, as many would-be foreign visitors stay at home. The economy contracted by an estimated 2.8 percent in 2008. Authorities expect it to shrink by 4.5 percent this year, although analysts say it may plunge by as much as 7.0 percent. Dozens of hotels built in…

First Estonia. Then Georgia. Now Kyrgyzstan. Computerworld: A Russian “cybermilitia” has knocked the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan off the Internet, a security researcher said today, demonstrating that the hackers are able to respond even faster than last year, when they waged a digital war against another former Soviet republic, Georgia. Since Jan. 18, the two biggest Internet service providers in Kyrgyzstan have been under a “massive, sustained distributed denial-of-service attack,” said Don Jackson, the director of threat intelligence at…

Rebecca’s back (again!), with yet another potent pairing of poems, this time in Octopus. I will say that I’m a big fan of “Cold,” as it mentions one of my favorite countries, Estonia! ECHOLOCATION Most days I wear the hunched run of an animal, darting until caught in net or claw— and that’s fine. Trapped, I noise and flap, send you pressed air, let you forge toward me. Let you touch me. Let you cut through net and claw. COLD…

The Estonian parliament (pictured) has just approved a bill to let Estonian citizens vote via their mobile phone. This makes the country the first country in the world to do so, and comes about 20 months after Estonia held its first nation-wide election where the electorate could cast their ballots online. Mobile phone voting, which likely will come via a new secure SIM card to be used in conjunction with the country’s digital ID card system, will take effect in…

1) Estonia’s minds key, says president, Wales Online, October 16 2008: [Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves] does not believe the collapse of Icelandic banks has doomed the concept of small, “clever” countries. He said: “In terms of small countries, it’s basically how you do things. The financial sector in Estonia represents 4% of GDP. “The financial sector in Iceland represented 25% of GDP.” Boasting of Estonia’s economic progress, he said: “We started out with a GDP of about $800 a…

NPR: All Things Considered, September 9, 2008 · The European Union has been split about how to respond to Russia’s attack on Georgia. Estonia is one of the EU members to have argued for a stronger response to Russia. It says NATO and EU membership must now be offered to Georgia and Ukraine.

Big ups to Evgeny Morozov for penning this oft-lauded piece for Slate, “An Army of Ones and Zeroes: How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar.” (Not to toot my own horn, but I played a small role in this piece, in that Evgeny asked me who to contact at Slate for the piece, and he took care of the rest.) He writes: I had a much simpler research objective: to test how much damage someone like me, who…