Future Tense with Jon Gordon

The conflict between Russia and Georgia has apparently spilled into cyberspace.

Russian-controlled computers are said to have launched Internet attacks against Georgian government Web sites as early as July 20, well before fighting on the ground began.

The denial of service attacks, which flood targets with malicious data, curtailed Georgia's ability to spread its message and communicate with the outside world. Russia denies it was behind the attacks.

Georgia did manage to mount a small counterstrike on the Russian state news agency. According to Internet experts, the cyber attack on Georgia is the first to have roughly coincided with the bombs-and-guns kind of war.

Bill Woodcock is research director at the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit organization that works to develop global network infrastructure. Woodcock was part of a team that helped Estonia defend itself from a cyber attack last year.

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