Now Russia & Georgia Engage in Cyberwarfare

As if their on the ground battles were not news worthy enough, geeks and hackers from the two belligerent nations are joining in the rumble. According to recent reports cyberwarfare is accelerating between the two nations leading to increasing problems while accessing the Internet within the two territories.

The first salvo in this digital battle was apparently launched in July, weeks before any action occurred on the ground. The official website of the Georgian President was hijacked and re-routed visitors to an alternate page which boasted an image of him juxtaposed with Hitler. It's not clear that the violation was initiated by the Russian government, it may likely have been the work of a nationalistic Russian group.

Georgians have replied by defacing Russian government websites and launching denial of service attacks. Russia is particularly irked by alleged attacks on its state sponsored news agency site that has been left dysfunctional for hours.

Is this the future of warfare? Geeks at computer screens clogging the enemy's data pipes and defacing their public websites? At least there won't be physical casualties but security researchers warn of the difficulty of ever pinpointing who started it and where he came from.