Estonia institutes volunteer cyber army

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=10404

by DirtyPowder • 16 years ago

20 14 16 years ago

3pt14159• 16 years ago

Everything old is new again. It would be interesting to see online groups much, like militias in the 1700s, getting called up by the government in a time of war, but keeping out spies would be difficult. Let's face it you are working with some of the few people on the planet that actually understand encryption and stenography.

michaelty• 16 years ago

The other side of cyber armies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

nkassis• 16 years ago

"The people who work in IT in the U.S. tend to be quite suspicious of government," says Stewart Baker, a former general counsel at the NSA. "Maybe they think that they're so much smarter than governments that they'll be able to handle an attack on their own. But there's a standoffishness that makes it much harder to have that kind of easy confidence that you can call on people in an emergency and that they'll be respond."

That section made me laugh, seriously, it's not because they think they are smarter and better, they just don't want to deal with the gov and be told what to do.

pavel_lishin• 16 years ago

I thought it's that they didn't trust the government.

wladimir• 16 years ago

Exactly. It's not any illusion of being 'better'. Some level of distrust is pretty rational, governments have their own agendas and those might not always be aligned with that of a multinational. And if multiple governments want to be involved in your IT infrastructure it could get pretty messy. You're inviting the "cyberwar" on your turf instead of keeping it out.

sad_hacker2• 16 years ago

I guess Estonians do trust their government, at least the IT part of it, they even vote online.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Estonia

jodrellblank• 16 years ago

This is a much more interesting story about Estonia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Do_It_2008

They got 50,000 people to clean up 10,000 tons of dumped rubbish spread over the whole country with a year of buildup and planning and 5 hours of work on the day.

mahmud2• 16 years ago

Those stuff are very common in former communist nations. The whole country does "trash collection day" for one day, then liters for 364.

plaes2• 16 years ago

I wish I could downvote you.. :S

sad_hacker2• 16 years ago

And there are only 1.3 million people in Estonia... The communist comment is even too dumb to give it an answer...

JoeAltmaier• 16 years ago

What a cool country. The more I hear about Estonia the more I like it.

duskwuff• 16 years ago

Interesting concept, but what exactly is a volunteer cyber-soldier supposed to do?

Estonia institutes volunteer cyber army

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