Russia Unleashes DDoS Attacks On Georgia, Tanks Follow

It's a crazy world we're living in. As the world drifted into the blissful unity celebration that is the Olympics (and the plethora of men in unitards and speedos), the Russian government took the time to invade a neighbor. Why not? And while our President laughed and giggled life away at the Games, he left it to the Presidential Nominees to call for peace and/or Cease Fire. He's busy, you know. And even as the Russian tanks blazed across the fields of Georgia, they had hacker teams at home flooding official Georgian websites with DDoS attacks to knock them offline...

In a move that shows modern warfare is more than just guns and planes, the Russian Government unleashed a series of hacks on official Georgian websites right before their invasion of the former Russian satellite. These attacks were designed to completely disrupt inter-governmental and government to citizenry communications, and from the looks of things, they were pretty effective. Many countries stepped in on Georgia's behalf, including Estonia and Germany, but even with the added server help, the hackers were able to reroute the traffic and continue their attacks.

What is astonishing about this is how much this sort of attack needs to be defended against. It's also scary to think what kind of state we would be in if a similar attack were unleashed on our government. This attack was able to cripple Georgia's ability to communicate and disseminate information. Are we prepared to counter an attack of this kind? Does the world realize now the possible effects of cyber-terrorism and threats?

Our government's overall lack of caring about ANYTHING except Paris Hilton running for president aside, this is just another example of why we need to invest heavily in the modern and future war fields of the interwebs. Thankfully, it appears the Russians and Georgians have called a Cease Fire, but without a continued investment in the future of cyber-defense, it seems many countries will be far behind the curve in the race for the next big weapon.