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When Does Internet Denial Trigger the Right of Armed Self-Defense?
Li, Sheng
Li, Sheng
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Abstract
Amid a 2007 dispute with Russia, Estonia suffered a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber-attacks that disabled the websites of government ministries, political parties, news outlets, banks, and other firms for several weeks. The attacks employed digital "bots" to overload Estonia's Internet infrastructure with an overwhelming stream of data packets, which caused serious service and communications disruptions before abruptly coming to a halt. During the initial stages, Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team (E-CERT) traced the attacks to I.P. addresses belonging to Russian nationalist groups, but was unable to establish direct participation by Moscow. Subsequent evidence suggested, however, that the attacks were tied to the Kremlin.