Tallink Has A 97 Percent Fall From Last Year

25 January 2008


REUTERS (TALLINN) - Baltic ship and ferry operator, Tallink has reported a first quarter net profit of USD $243,500 on Friday, which is a fall of 97 percent from the same period a year ago. The company said that the profit collapse was due to the launch of a new booking system in October, which had taken time for both clients and staff to get used to. During this transition period between the systems, the bookings and sales activities are not running at their highest capacity. (Source Reliability: 8)

Comment: Tallink is one of the largest passenger and cargo shipping companies in the Baltic Sea region, operating on seven shipping routes under the brands of Tallink, Silja Line and Seawind.

Picture Source: http://www.superfast-ferries.narod.ru/tallink_superfast-9.jpg
This ferry comes from the company Tallink which has had a 97 percent fall from last year.

Estonia Fines Man For Cyber Attack

25 January 2008

BBC NEWS (TALLINN) -- A 20-year-old Russian man is the first person to be convicted for taking part in the "cyber war" against Estonia. Dmitri Galushkevich was fined USD 1635.23 for participating in the attack that lasted between 25 April and 4 May 2007. Prosecutors said Mr Galushkevich, a student, had claimed that the attack was an act of protest against Mr Ansip, who became a hate figure for Estonia's Russian minority. Most of the hackers were believed to be based in Russia and that Kremlin computers were used to carry out a number of the attacks. Mr Galushkevich is the first individual to be fined in connection with the attacks. Spokesman for the regional prosecutor's office in north-east, Gerrit Maesalu, said that the man had admitted his guilt and had no criminal record. Several other investigations into the events are under way, but no one else has yet been brought to trial. (Source Reliability: 8)

Comment: Although USD 1635.23 does not seem like a very big fine for such a disastrous cyber attack, there is a huge amount of people that were involved with this attack.

Analysis: Estonia is taking this attack very serious and will likely find and fine the hackers that participated in the attack. (Analytic Confidence: 6)

Scientists Reveal Cause Of Estonia Ferry Disaster

10 January 2008

SPIEGEL ONLINE (TALLINN) - The Estonia sank on the night of 28 September 1994, killing 852 people. The ship was traveling from Tallinn to Stockholm. Only 137 of the 989 passengers and crew on board survived the disaster. Until now, it was unsure as to why the ship sank. A research team's calculations, suggested that speed, wave conditions and a turning maneuver sealed the fate of the Estonia. It was not caused by explosives like some speculate. On the night of the disaster the ship's crew had the ferry at full speed through 13-foot waves to make up for delays. The resulting stress caused the bow visor to break off from the hull, which formed a second barrier against the waves. This allowed the vehicle deck, normally 10 feet above the water line to suddenly flood. The turn to portside was an attempt to use wind and wave action to stabilize the ship, however computer simulation reveals that physics prevailed over the crew's efforts, and the ship sank. (Source Reliability: 8)

Comment: Due to this accident the standards of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are being extremely well enforced in all passenger ships.

Estonia Supports Afghanistan

14 Jan 2008

RELIEF WEB (TALLINN) - The Estonian Foreign Ministry is supporting the population census in Afghanistan with USD 46,725. According to Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, it is important for Afghanistan to have information on the size and concentration of their population, so that they can reconstruct Afghanistan. Urmas Paet stated that without the data, Afghanistan would be hindered and not able to accomplish reconstruction. With this money, they will be able to simplify the creation of policies and aid programs to support the development of Afghanistan. The last census that was taken in Afghanistan was in 1979, and was incomplete with no official results. (Source Reliability: 8)

Analysis: It is likely that relations with Estonia and Afghanistan will improve due to this support. (Analytic Confidence: 6)

Picture Source: http://tinyurl.com/yq4yg3 Picture- Urmas Paet has argued for the need of support in Afghanistan

Another Cyber Attack Upon Estonia

16 January 2008

NETWORKWORLD (TALLINN) - The trial for four Russians charged in connection with rioting last year has just started, which has resulted in another cyber attack. The Estonian news site Delfi.ee was under a two-week-long denial of service attack. According to Hillar Aarelaid, manager of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) the attack that ended Tuesday, was only slightly disruptive. Unlike the massive May 2007 DOS attack, this one was an ordinary DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack. In an attempt to crash sites, the Russians are to blame for flooding news agency's servers with internet traffic. Security experts have described the online attacks as more of an online riot than coordinated state-sponsored cyber-warfare. (Source Reliability: 9)

Analysis: It is likely that due to continued unrest between Estonia and Russia, and high economic and technological expansion within the internet, that cyber attacks upon Estonia will continue. (Analytic Confidence: 6)