As reported today in the Wall Street Journal, denial-of-service attacks “crippled Web sites operated by Estonian government ministries, banks, media outlets and other companies.” The Estonian government is reported to have traced much of the traffic in this attack to Russian computers.

“There is a discussion over how cyber aggression should fit into current law and whether a conventional attack would be suitable retaliation,” said Johannes Ullrich, CTO of the SANS Institute, according to the article in today’s Journal.

This question is bound to rise in salience, as businesses, governments and whole economies become increasingly dependent on the Internet. It is an especially important question for Estonia, which has gained a reputation in recent years among foreign investors as a hotbed of technology savvy and innovation, especially related to the Internet, and where our research has found that all schools and public offices, as well as 90 percent of enterprises, have Internet connections.

Historically, a naval blockade was generally regarded as an act of war. Should a cyber blockade be viewed similarly?

http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/schatsky/archives/008351.html