Estonia convicts first 'cyber-war' hacker: prosecutors

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

TALLINN (AFP) — An ethnic Russian has become the first person convicted for involvement in a "cyber-war" on Estonia last year amid unrest during the removal of a Soviet-era war memorial, prosecutors said Wednesday.

"Dmitri Galushkevich is the first hacker to be sentenced for organising a massive cyber-attack against an Estonian webpage," Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman for the regional prosecutor's office in north-east Estonia, told AFP.

Galushkevich, 20, was fined 17,500 kroons (1,120 euros, 1,620 dollars) for piloting an attack between April 25 and May 4 which blocked the website of the Reform Party of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.

The assault on the party's website was one of a raft of attacks by hackers on Estonian institutions and businesses.

"The...