In 2007, Estonia, a small European country decided to move a controversial statue to a cemetery on the outskirts of the metro area. Someone posted inaccurate news stories that the statue was going to be destroyed and the cemeteries along with it. Riots ensued.
On 26 April 2007 Tallinn erupted into two nights of riots and looting. 156 people were injured, one person died and 1,000 people were detained.
From 27 April, Estonia was also hit by major cyber-attacks which in some cases lasted weeks.
Online services of Estonian banks, media outlets and government bodies were taken down by unprecedented levels of internet traffic.
Massive waves of spam were sent by botnets and huge amounts of automated online requests swamped servers.
The result for Estonians citizens was that cash machines and online banking services were sporadically out of action; government employees were unable to communicate with each other on email; and newspapers and broadcasters suddenly found they couldn’t deliver the news.
35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional 