BERLIN — The cyberwar against Georgia has underlined the need for a unified approach against the growing menace of cyber terrorism, IT experts said at a cyber security forum in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Georgian government websites suffered cyber attacks in August in connection with Russia's military offensive into Georgian territory. Estonia was among several states that stepped in to host hacked Georgian websites.

"The cyber war against Georgia in August demonstrated how it has become part of the real war on the ground and we must act," Estonian politician Mart Laar told the forum, according to a report by AFP.

Tim Boerner, an IT security expert with the US Secret Service, said experts noted increased attacks on Georgian web sites weeks before the first bombs fell on Georgia.

Estonia itself was hit by cyber attacks in 2007 after the relocation of a Soviet war memorial. Bank and government websites crashed due to denial-of-service attacks blamed on Russian hackers.

"Over one million computers worldwide were used during the cyber attacks against Estonia in spring 2007," Boerner was quoted as saying in the report.

Estonia has since been chosen by NATO to host a center for defense against cyber attacks.

Lithuania has also been hit. In April this year, a cyber attack that defaced or clogged some 300 Lithuanian websites occurred just after a government decision to ban both the use of Soviet symbols and the playing of the Soviet national anthem.

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