Cyber attack|For the first time, with its own investigation, Estonia named the Russian military intelligence GRU as the perpetrator of the cyber attack. Finland has been naming Russia when the EU is involved.
Estonia your name on Thursday Three officers of the Russian military intelligence GRU unit 29155 as perpetrators of cyber attacks against the Estonian state.
“It was a big step,” says the head of cyber diplomacy Tanel Sepp by phone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.
According to Seppi, naming the culprit shows that the so-called cyberspace is not the “wild west”, but international laws apply there too.
The United States and Britain have campaigned for the designation because there are many major elections this year that are subject to cyber attacks, says Sepp.
In this decade, many countries in the coalition have named Russia, China or North Korea as the perpetrators of cyber attacks. The development of technology and investigation methods has made naming possible.
When Estonia was the target of large-scale cyberattacks in 2007, it would have wanted to name Russia as the perpetrator even then, Sepp recalls.
Seppi can’t suddenly think of close neighbors who would have single-handedly named Russia as the perpetrator of the cyberattacks.
Most of the time, a coalition of states jointly names the perpetrator of cyberattacks when the perpetrator is a foreign state. Estonia has often named Russia as the perpetrator of the cyber attack collectively with, for example, the EU, says Sepp.
Finland too has often named Russia as the perpetrator of cyberattacks together with the EU, says the team leader specializing in hybrid threats Pekka Marttila From the security policy and crisis management unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
On the other hand, according to Marttila, Finland has not single-handedly named the state as the perpetrator of the cyber attack.
Marttila estimates that the state is now named as the perpetrator of cyberattacks a few times a year.
Estonia suspects Russian military intelligence officers of cyberattacks carried out against the 26 countries of the parallels. The cases were also investigated in an international cooperation operation called Toy Soldier, in which ten countries participated.
As part of the same operation, the United States has named several officers of the Russian GRU unit 29155 as the perpetrators of cyber attacks against Ukraine.
The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Canada, Australia and Britain also took part in the operation, Tanel Sepp, head of Estonian cyber diplomacy, lists.
So Finland was not on the participant list.
Finland the protection police, Supo, does not comment on whether Finland was one of the 26 countries to which Russia targeted cyber threats.
Communication specialist Irene Zidane Suposta commented on a general level that Finland is the target of Russian intelligence services’ cyber activities.
According to Supo, Russia is directing intelligence more and more online, as intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover have been expelled from Europe. Russian intelligence services have extensive resources for cyber espionage and influence.
#Cyber #attack #Estonia #names #Russian #officers #suspected #cyberattacks #countrys #cyber #diplomacy #chief #big #step
