Cyber-warfare continues to become a growing concern for security authorities all around the world. Beginning on April 27th 2007, Estonia became the first country to fall victim to a co-ordinated cyber-attack which lasted two weeks. “The attacks began on the day that Estonia authorities removed a Soviet-era war monument that had been the source of protests and diplomatic tensions with Russia for months. The government removed the monument, known as the Bronze Soldier, after a night of violent clashes and looting that ended with scores of arrests and the death of one protester. [1 – Cyberattack on Estonia stirs fear of ‘virtual war’]”. Following all the protests, a new problem began to arise as major websites within the country became inaccessible. “Such politically motivated attacks by organized hacker networks — known to specialists as “hactivism” — were also seen against Danish Web sites after the publications of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a magazine. [2 – Analysis: Who cyber smacked Estonia?]”.

This paper will describe the attack and the vulnerability exploited by the hackers as well as the mechanisms and procedures owners or administrators of the system could use to prevent such an attack from being successful.
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