Estonia blames Russia for cyber war

Estonia has been hit by a series of hacking attacks crashing the country's websites and has accused Russia of starting a cyber war.

Leaders in the capital, Tallinn, claim many of the attacks have come from Russia and are being hosted by state computer servers in the country. However, Moscow denies any involvement in the assaults.

The Baltic nation claims the attacks began following the removal of a Soviet war memorial in the capital. The two countries have been locked in a dispute ever since the removal and Estonia has been bombarded with denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults over the past three weeks, with websites for the government, banks and political parties taken down.

A spokesperson for NATO, said the organisation had sent technical experts to Estonia to help combat the problem. Estonian officials have blocked access to some of the servers from outside of the country to prevent further attacks. The Prime Minister of Estonia, Andrus Ansip, has directly accused the Russian government of being behind the assaults.