MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian wing of hacker activist group Anonymous claimed responsibility for shutting down an Estonian government website on Friday, as part of what the group said was a campaign to promote Ukraine’s independence from Euro-Atlantic institutions.
As Estonia’s Defense Ministry homepage refused to open, the ministry said its website had encountered a “cyber incident,” but did not specify whether the problem was due to a hacker attack.
Anonymous Ukraine claimed responsibility, saying the attack was part of a crusade codenamed #OpIndependence to protest Ukrainian cooperation with the European Union, NATO and Russia
“Ukraine should not be anybody’s servant,” read the statement, posted on a web application. “Hands off Ukraine!”
Estonia is a member of both the EU and NATO.
The website resumed its work on Friday afternoon. The ministry’s undersecretary for legal and administrative affairs, Taimar Peterkop, said the damage from the attack was “minimal.”
Anonymous Ukraine said it has defaced a number of Russian and Polish websites and attacked the European Investment Bank site this week to campaign for the country’s independence.
Ukraine is in the midst of negotiations to sign a major free-trade agreement with the EU later this month. Ukrainian marines are also scheduled to participate in a NATO exercise in Poland in November.
