Fears of cyber attack can be real

For many years intelligence forces have claimed there is a risk of terrorist cyber attack. With access to the internet available to the majority of the world courtesy of satellite links, and at the last count over 50 million web sites, it becomes ever more difficult to track down those who would use the internet with criminal intent. Equally, with more commerce and governments resorting to the internet, the opportunities for creating economic havoc through cyber attacks increase.

Nato has just disclosed that Estonia, a new member of its organisation, was the recipient of a terrorist cyber attack last year, crippling the government's websites for nearly two months. It was suspected the attacks came from Russia, with whom Estonia was having a dispute at the time. On becoming "part of the West" Estonia decided to restructure the way it conducted government and commerce and quickly became one of Europe's most advanced internet economies.

The cyber attack Estonia suffered was a wake-up call to all security organisations and governments. The consequence of which was for Nato to set up special response teams to deal with the problem, while improving the organisaton's own systems. Some would argue that it is not before time.