TALLINN - Lauri Almann, secretary-general of the Estonian Defense Ministry, drew a parallel between modern cyberthreats and the perception of threat during the cold war in a high-level security conference in Washington DC earlier today.

"Looking at the recent attacks against the critical infrastructure in Great Britain, France and Germany, we can say that we have arrived in the age of cyberterrorism and perhaps even cyberwar," Almann said.

In his opinion the cyberattacks against Estonia could be regarded as an attack against the country's life style, which heavily relies on information technology services.

Almann said that without timely and effective countermeasures the malicious activity in cyberspace could have ended very sadly for Estonia.

"In principle, the cyber attacks of 2007 against Estonia showed that the Internet has already become a perfect battleground of the 21st century," he added.

The secretary-general said that in order to cope with the threats coming from cyberspace countries should apply an approach embracing the whole society.

Almann added that more attention should be paid to the legal aspects of cybercrime.