Warfare entered the 21st century earlier this year when Estonia came under assault by activists who attacked the country's computer systems. The prospect of war in the digital domain is a sobering one for security establishments that are still unprepared for it. The proliferation of networked systems, and the critical role that information technologies play in modern societies, demand that all governments be ready to defend themselves on the new battlefields of cyberspace.

Estonia came under attack when the Tallinn government decided in April to move Soviet-era war memorials — a statue of a Soviet soldier and the remains of soldiers — from the center of town. Infuriated Russians responded with "denial of service" attacks — the bombardment of computers with information that overloads them and shuts them down — on key Estonian Web sites. It is still unclear whether the Russian government had a hand in the assaults; Moscow denied involvement and the attacks apparently came from a variety of countries.

The assault on Estonia is not unprecedented. In recent years, Internet activists have gone after a variety of Web sites, public and private, when they feel aggrieved or offended. Japan felt the sting of Internet anger after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine.