Last weekend, several hundred Lithuanian websites were defaced with pro-Soviet and anti-Lithuanian slogans, according to The New York Times.
Last Friday, Lithuanian government sites were warned of an impending Web attack and mounted appropriate defences. Several hundred commercial sites did not do so and over the weekend took the brunt of the attack. By Monday, most all of the sites had been restored.
As with last year's Estonian denial-of-service attacks, the new attacks appear to be in reaction to a law outlawing the display of Soviet symbols in Lithuania. Germany has similar laws outlawing the display of Nazi symbols.
Early evidence suggests a group of criminal hackers may have organised the attacks. The IPs used in the attacks appear to be from a variety of nations, but Reston, Va.-based iDefense told the Washington Post that one site, hack-war.ru, appeared to have organised the protest.
Over at our sister site ZDNet.com, Dancho Danchev examines whether the defacements could escalate into denial-of-service attacks, and concludes they might.
Meanwhile, in his blog, Brian Krebs speculates on nations or nationalistic parties within nations mounting or defending themselves against cyberattacks such as these in the future.
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