Ah, hysteria. A few backs back, when Estonia's government websites were hit with distributed-denial-of-service-attacks, ordinarily-smart people were quick to point the finger at Russia -- and declare this to be first full-scale cyberwar, if not the future of warfare itself. Leading newspapers dispatched their correspondents to Eastern Europe, to uncover what had happened. Great magazines planned massive coverage. Never mind the fact that no one was hurt by the onslaught of ones and zeros. Never mind that the connection to Russia was dubious, at best.
Then, just as quickly, the "cyberarmageddon" fell apart. Researchers could find no links to the Russian government. And now, as our brothers at *Threat Level *note, Estonian ministers are conceding that "the Russian government may not have been responsible, after all." The prime minister asking Moscow for help in tracking down the perpetrators.
"It is clear this is criminal activity. I hope Russia will co-operate in those cases with Estonia," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told a news conference in Helsinki, according to Reuters.
UPDATE: I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that one of the some of the most shrill prophets of "cyberarmageddon" are hosting a day-long seminar on "psychic information warfare & intelligence gathering." No, I am not making this up.
