clydeiii/cybersecurity · Datasets at Hugging Face

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ministry sites were unavailable from the U.S. Although the foreign ministry's site
remained online, the most recent news item was dated Aug. 8, the day
Georgian and Russian forces first clashed.
Armin warned that Georgian sites that appeared online may actually be
bogus. "Use caution with any Web sites that appear of a Georgia official
source but are without any recent news [such as those dated Saturday, Aug.
9, or Sunday, Aug. 10], as these may be fraudulent," he said in another entry
posted midafternoon on Sunday.
Statements from Georgia's foreign ministry have appeared in a blog hosted
on Google, perhaps in an attempt to circumvent attacks.
Researchers at the Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks malicious Internet
activity, confirmed some of Armin's claims. "We are now seeing new attacks
against .ge sites [Editor's note: .ge is the top-level domain for Georgia.] ...
www.parliament.ge and president.gov.ge are currently being hit with HTTP
floods," the researchers said in a Sunday update to a July post.
On Saturday, Armin reported that key sections of Georgia's Internet traffic
had been rerouted through servers based in Russia and Turkey, where the
traffic was either blocked or diverted. The Russian and Turkish servers Armin
identified, he said, "are well known to be under the control of RBN and
influenced by the Russian government."
RBN, which pulled up stakes last year and shifted network operations to China
in an attempt to avoid scrutiny, has been fingered for a wide range of
criminal activities, including a massive subversion of Web sites last March.
Later on Saturday, Armin added that network administrators in Germany had
been able to temporarily reroute some Georgian Internet traffic directly to
servers run by Deutsche Telekom AG. Within hours, however, the traffic had
been again diverted to Russian servers, this time to ones based in Moscow.
The attacks are reminiscent of other coordinated campaigns against Estonian
government Web sites in April and May 2007 and against about 300
Lithuanian sites on July 1. Like Georgia, both countries are former republics in
the Soviet Union.
Three weeks ago, a distributed denial-of-service attack knocked Georgia's
presidential site offline for about a day.
Late Sunday, Russian ground forces were reported advancing toward Gori,
an important transportation hub in central Georgia.
SOFT SECURITY
11 August 2008
This day highlights
Coordinated Russia vs Georgia cyber attack in progress (extract)
In the wake of Russian-Georgian conflict, a week worth of speculations
around Russian Internet forums have finally materialized into a coordinated
cyber attack against Georgia
s Internet infrastructure, whose tactics have
already managed to compromise several government web sites and is
continuing to launch DDoS attacks against numerous other Georgian
government sites
THE TELEGRAPH
August 11 2008
By Jon Swaine
Georgia: Russia 'conducting cyber war'
Several Georgian state computer servers have been under external control
since shortly before Russia's armed intervention into the state commenced on
Friday, leaving its online presence in disarray.
While the official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, has
become available again, the central government site, as well as the
homepages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence,
remained down. Some commercial websites have also been hijacked.
The Georgian Government said that the disruption was caused by attacks
carried out by Russia as part of the ongoing conflict between the two states
over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.
In a statement released via a replacement website built on Google's bloghosting service, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "A cyber warfare
campaign by Russia is seriously disrupting many Georgian websites, including
that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Barack Obama, the Democratic US Presidential candidate, has demanded
Moscow halt the internet attacks as well as observing a ceasefire on the
ground.
Last April the computer systems of the Estonian Government came under
attack in a coordinated three-week assault widely credited to statesponsored Russian hackers. The wave of attacks came after a row erupted
over the removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in Tallinn, the
Estonian capital. The websites of government departments, political parties,
banks and newspapers were all targeted.
Analysts have immediately accused the Russian Business Network (RBN), a
network of criminal hackers with close links to the Russian mafia and
government, of the Georgian attacks.
Jart Armin, a researcher who runs a website tracking the activity of the RBN,
has released data claiming to show that visits to Georgian sites had been rerouted through servers in Russia and Turkey, where the traffic was blocked.
Armin said the servers "are well known to be under the control of RBN and
influenced by the Russian Government."
Mr Armin said that administrators in Germany had intervened at the
weekend, temporarily making the Georgian sites available by re-routing their
traffic through German servers run by Deutsche Telekom. Within hours,
however, control over the traffic had been wrested back, this time to servers
based in Moscow.
As in the barrage against Estonian websites last year, the Georgian sites are
being bombarded by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which
hackers direct their computers to simultaneously flood a site with thousands of
visits in order to overload it and bring it offline.
The Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks serious hacking, confirmed: "We
are now seeing new attacks against .ge sites - www.parliament.ge and
president.gov.ge are currently being hit with http floods."
Mr Armin warned that official Georgian sites that did appear online may have
been hijacked and be displaying bogus content. He said in a post on his site:
"Use caution with any web sites that appear of a Georgia official source but
are without any recent news ... as these may be fraudulent."
The Baltic Business News website reported that Estonia has offered to
send a specialist online security team to Georgia
However a spokesman from Estonia's Development Centre of State
Information Systems said Georgia had not made a formal request. "This
will be decided by the government," he said
NEW YORK TIMES

ministry sites were unavailable from the U.S. Although the foreign ministry's site

remained online, the most recent news item was dated Aug. 8, the day

Georgian and Russian forces first clashed.

Armin warned that Georgian sites that appeared online may actually be

bogus. "Use caution with any Web sites that appear of a Georgia official

source but are without any recent news [such as those dated Saturday, Aug.

9, or Sunday, Aug. 10], as these may be fraudulent," he said in another entry

posted midafternoon on Sunday.

Statements from Georgia's foreign ministry have appeared in a blog hosted

on Google, perhaps in an attempt to circumvent attacks.

Researchers at the Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks malicious Internet

activity, confirmed some of Armin's claims. "We are now seeing new attacks

against .ge sites [Editor's note: .ge is the top-level domain for Georgia.] ...

www.parliament.ge and president.gov.ge are currently being hit with HTTP

floods," the researchers said in a Sunday update to a July post.

On Saturday, Armin reported that key sections of Georgia's Internet traffic

had been rerouted through servers based in Russia and Turkey, where the

traffic was either blocked or diverted. The Russian and Turkish servers Armin

identified, he said, "are well known to be under the control of RBN and

influenced by the Russian government."

RBN, which pulled up stakes last year and shifted network operations to China

in an attempt to avoid scrutiny, has been fingered for a wide range of

criminal activities, including a massive subversion of Web sites last March.

Later on Saturday, Armin added that network administrators in Germany had

been able to temporarily reroute some Georgian Internet traffic directly to

servers run by Deutsche Telekom AG. Within hours, however, the traffic had

been again diverted to Russian servers, this time to ones based in Moscow.

The attacks are reminiscent of other coordinated campaigns against Estonian

government Web sites in April and May 2007 and against about 300

Lithuanian sites on July 1. Like Georgia, both countries are former republics in

the Soviet Union.

Three weeks ago, a distributed denial-of-service attack knocked Georgia's

presidential site offline for about a day.

Late Sunday, Russian ground forces were reported advancing toward Gori,

an important transportation hub in central Georgia.

SOFT SECURITY

11 August 2008

This day highlights

Coordinated Russia vs Georgia cyber attack in progress (extract)

In the wake of Russian-Georgian conflict, a week worth of speculations

around Russian Internet forums have finally materialized into a coordinated

cyber attack against Georgia

s Internet infrastructure, whose tactics have

already managed to compromise several government web sites and is

continuing to launch DDoS attacks against numerous other Georgian

government sites

THE TELEGRAPH

August 11 2008

By Jon Swaine

Georgia: Russia 'conducting cyber war'

Several Georgian state computer servers have been under external control

since shortly before Russia's armed intervention into the state commenced on

Friday, leaving its online presence in disarray.

While the official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, has

become available again, the central government site, as well as the

homepages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence,

remained down. Some commercial websites have also been hijacked.

The Georgian Government said that the disruption was caused by attacks

carried out by Russia as part of the ongoing conflict between the two states

over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.

In a statement released via a replacement website built on Google's bloghosting service, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "A cyber warfare

campaign by Russia is seriously disrupting many Georgian websites, including

that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Barack Obama, the Democratic US Presidential candidate, has demanded

Moscow halt the internet attacks as well as observing a ceasefire on the

ground.

Last April the computer systems of the Estonian Government came under

attack in a coordinated three-week assault widely credited to statesponsored Russian hackers. The wave of attacks came after a row erupted

over the removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in Tallinn, the

Estonian capital. The websites of government departments, political parties,

banks and newspapers were all targeted.

Analysts have immediately accused the Russian Business Network (RBN), a

network of criminal hackers with close links to the Russian mafia and

government, of the Georgian attacks.

Jart Armin, a researcher who runs a website tracking the activity of the RBN,

has released data claiming to show that visits to Georgian sites had been rerouted through servers in Russia and Turkey, where the traffic was blocked.

Armin said the servers "are well known to be under the control of RBN and

influenced by the Russian Government."

Mr Armin said that administrators in Germany had intervened at the

weekend, temporarily making the Georgian sites available by re-routing their

traffic through German servers run by Deutsche Telekom. Within hours,

however, control over the traffic had been wrested back, this time to servers

based in Moscow.

As in the barrage against Estonian websites last year, the Georgian sites are

being bombarded by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which

hackers direct their computers to simultaneously flood a site with thousands of

visits in order to overload it and bring it offline.

The Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks serious hacking, confirmed: "We

are now seeing new attacks against .ge sites - www.parliament.ge and

president.gov.ge are currently being hit with http floods."

Mr Armin warned that official Georgian sites that did appear online may have

been hijacked and be displaying bogus content. He said in a post on his site:

"Use caution with any web sites that appear of a Georgia official source but

are without any recent news ... as these may be fraudulent."

The Baltic Business News website reported that Estonia has offered to

send a specialist online security team to Georgia

However a spokesman from Estonia's Development Centre of State

Information Systems said Georgia had not made a formal request. "This

will be decided by the government," he said

NEW YORK TIMES