Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian Government sites containing the message: “win(PLUS)love(PLUS)in(PLUS)Rusia”.Other Internet experts in the US said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers.Researchers at Shadowserver, a volunteer group that tracks malicious network activity, reported that the website of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had been rendered inoperable for 24 hours. They said the command and control server that directed the attack was based in the US and had come online several weeks before it began the assault. As it turns out, the July attack may have been a dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Russia. According to Internet technical experts, it was the first time a known cyberattack had coincided with a shooting war. But it will likely not be the last, said Bill Woodcock, the research director of the Packet Clearing House, a non-profit organisation that tracks Internet traffic. He said cyberattacks were so inexpensive and easy to mount, with few fingerprints, they would almost certainly remain a feature of modern warfare. Exactly who was behind the attack is not known. Georgia blamed Russia for the attacks, who denied involvement. In the end, Georgia, with a population of just 4.6 million and a relative latecomer to the Internet, saw little effect beyond inaccessibility to many of its Government websites.
