Estonia repelled the 'most extensive' cyber attack after it removed Soviet monuments

Vilnius, Estonia

Soon after taking down Soviet monuments in a province with a large Russian ethnic population, Estonia said on Thursday that it had thwarted "the most extensive cyber attack since 2007". 

On Wednesday, the Russian hacker collective Killnet claimed responsibility for the attack and announced that it had blocked access to more than 200 public and private institutions in Estonia, including an online citizen identity system. An Estonian government official, however, said on Thursday that the attack had little overall impact.

"Yesterday, Estonia was subject to the most extensive cyber attacks it has faced since 2007," tweeted Luukas Ilves, undersecretary for digital transformation at Estonia's ministry of economic affairs and communications.

A Soviet Tu-34 tank was taken off the display on Tuesday in the town of Narva and placed in a museum, according to Killnet, which claimed responsibility for a strike identical to this one in Lithuania in June. In a DDoS attack, hackers attempt to overwhelm a network with unusually large amounts of data traffic in an effort to bring it to a standstill when it is unable to handle the volume of data demanded. 

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After experiencing significant cyberattacks on both public and private websites in 2007, which it attributed to Russians enraged over its removal of a Soviet-era statue, Estonia attempted to strengthen cyber security. After the Red Army monument was removed from a square in Tallinn, ethnic Russians rioted for two nights.

In response to escalating tensions in the predominantly Russian-speaking town of Narva, the Estonian government on Tuesday ordered the immediate removal of all public Soviet memorials there. They also accused Russia of attempting to use the past to further divide Estonian society.

(with inputs from agencies)