Georgian Cyber Attacks Linked to Russian Gang

Last year some serious DDoS attacks brought down multiple Georgian websites. This week we learn that said attacks are linked to Russian gangs.

PC World reports that an independent research institute which assesses the impact of cyber attacks has submitted to the U.S. Government a 100-page analysis of the attacks on several Georgian government and media websites. While this information is not being made available to the general public (for now it's just the government and cybersecurity professionals), the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit released a nine-page summary early yesterday.

"Many of the cyber attacks were so close in time to the corresponding military operations that there had to be close cooperation between people in the Russian military and the civilian cyber attackers," PC World quotes the report as saying. "Many of the actions the attackers carried out, such as registering new domain names and putting up new Web sites, were accomplished so quickly that all of the steps had to be prepared earlier."

While the report does concede that the timing of the attacks and the timing of the Russia-Georgia war are not likely to be a coincidence, the institute is said to be confident that that the Russian government did not carry out the attacks. However, the report does suggest that although the Russian government did not carry out the attacks itself, the military may have been cooperating closely with the cyber attackers.

"Many of the cyber attacks were so close in time to the corresponding military operations that there had to be close cooperation between people in the Russian military and the civilian cyber attackers," the report said.

Read the full story on PC World.