Herzog outlines a contentious history between Russia and Estonia, but points to 2007 as the year when cyber-attacks against Estonia began at full force. In 2007, Estonia moved the “Bronze Soldier” statue, which commemorates Soviet freedom of Estonia from Nazis, to a smaller Estonian city. Shortly after, many Estonian websites and online infrastructure were hacked or shut down all together, including key federal sites. Herzog argues that the increase of technological advancement both increased the chances that Estonia would be cyber attacked but on the other hand, it allowed Russians to use the internet to interact and create a firmer national identity. This nationalism empowered Russians to attack a country that they felt harmed this identity. This act of cyber terrorism was a huge wake up call for the global community: it showed the scale of cyber-attacks that was possible and forced countries to seriously consider nation-wide security for the first time. As such, NATO developed new regulations to try to prevent such wide-scale attacks in the future. Herzog, however, concludes that democratic countries (especially smaller countries) need to seriously consider the line between technological advancement with a free internet and monitoring for nation-wide cybersecurity. If not, he warns that state-sponsored cyber terrorism from Russia or China could be likely.
