Experts split on cyberterrorism threat Technology

Estonian defence ministry official Christian-Marc Liflander said sustained electronic attacks on his country last year came both from crude hackers and from sophisticated cyberterrorists remotely manipulating zombie computers known as botnets. I would say we have entered an era of cyber terror and perhaps even of cyber war, Liflander told a London security conference at the Royal United Services Institute. Estonia has said it believes the Russian government was behind last year s attacks, which came amid a diplomatic row over Tallinn s decision to relocate a Soviet-era war memorial. But Liflander said the botnet attacks came from computers in 76 different countries and it was hard to prove who sponsored them. What we have is just a gazillion IP (Internet Protocol) addresses that don t prove anything. The effect was to paralyse websites and cause severe disruption to key services such as banking, in a country with one of the highest levels of Internet usage in the world.

Bear hit by Estonian Defense Ministers

The accident took place at 8:40 a.m. Tartu to the town of Paide and was unable to avoid hitting a large bear that had suddenly run onto the road near the Imavere road crossing. Aaviksoo was in the back seat of the Audi A6 at the time of the accident, had his seat belt fastened and was reading a book, said Riina Vandre, adviser to the minister. The bear managed to cross the road to the other side after the accident but had to be shot later by hunters called to the scene. The front of the minister s car was damaged and needs repair. Vandre said Aaviksoo was on his way to meet with JarvaCounty governor Ullar Vahtramae when the accident happened. Peep Mannil, unit head at the Ministry of Environment, said road accidents involving bears were rare in Estonia.

Late-night flights on Tallinn-Stockholm route

From April 14 Estonian Air added the flight schedule late-night flights between Tallinn and Stockholm. Additional late-night flights will be operated three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Stockholm airport offers convenient transit connections to Europe, Northern America and Asia both for leisure and business travellers. Late-night flights from Stockholm will depart after the arrival of most flights from Europe to Stockholm, which will create very good late-night connections from European cities (London, Munich, Madrid, Paris, Zürich, Amsterdam, etc) to Tallinn. Additional late-night flights will be operated three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Stockholm airport offers convenient transit connections to Europe, Northern America and Asia both for leisure and business travellers. Late-night flights from Stockholm will depart after the arrival of most flights from Europe to Stockholm, which will create very good late-night connections from European cities (London, Munich, Madrid, Paris, Zürich, Amsterdam, etc) to Tallinn.

Why the Baltic property crash is good news

That was the key message emerging at a seminar titled Regeneration - Sustainable Urban Planning hosted by real estate giant Collier s CRE in Tallinn on April 8. Philip Harcourt, Head of Development Consulting at Collier s emphasised that talk of regeneration and sustainability in real estate projects needed to be more than just window dressing. Regeneration is one of those misused words, he said. It s like the term property developer. Property developers have developed a bad name. When you read about a businessman appearing in court, he s usually described as a property developer. Today all the property developers are becoming regenerators. Regeneration is getting a bad name. The danger is the property developers build their building and go home - but that isn t the end of it. Actually regeneration is about much more than just building things and walking away.

Tallink s Superstar takes to the high seas

Tallink Group s subsidiary Tallink Superfast Ltd. Ancona-built M S Superstar, which will add to travellers options on the pivotal Helsinki-Tallinn route. The vessel is being introduced to build on the success of the year-round shuttle service that was launched a year ago on this route. It arrives in Tallinn next week and enters service a week later, to complement the existing vessel the M S Star. The M S Superstar can accommodate up to 2,080 passengers and has 1,930 lane metres for ro-ro cargo. The vessel is 175.1 metres long, has 186 cabins with a total of 736 beds. Its recorded service speed is 27.5 knots. The highlight of the ship s interior design is the show-bar located in the fore which goes through three floors and has a large glass wall.

Quiet genius who brought the East

TALLINN - The Koran is undoubtedly one of the most important texts in world culture, so it s maybe not so surprising that the book is selling well in Estonia. No one thought, however, it would sell as well as it did. The truly astonishing thing is that it took until December 2007 for the book to be published in Estonian. There is no doubt the Koran would not have been translated at all if weren t for the work of one remarkable man, Haljand Udam - geologist, scientist, linguist, translator, writer, and genius. The Baltic Times spoke to the friends and family of the man who single-handedly made the most important cultural event of the year in Estonia possible, including his widow who has never spoken to the press before.

Estonia Becomes E-stonia

But while this capital city of Estonia -- a North-European country along the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea -- remains a living museum, it is also a hi-tech hotbed as well. For instance, the technologies for Skype and Baidu were developed in this country. And recently, with the latest group of Wi-Fi access points installed, this 45,000 square-kilometer former Soviet nation is now also completely covered with wireless Internet access, setting an example for many more-developed and richer states that have been trying to achieve this feat for years. Often called E-stonia by geeks, every one of its 1.4 million residents, half of which live in the suburban and rural areas, are connected by wireless Internet. More than two-thirds of the population conduct their personal banking transactions and file their taxes online.

Copterline Resumes Flights to Estonia

Wednesday resumed helicopter flights between Finland and Estonia, which were suspended soon after a fatal crash killed all 14 people on board. The Finnish company restarted the service with one helicopter flying 12 return flights from Helsinki every weekday to the Estonian capital, Tallinn. It plans to add another helicopter later this year. The service was disrupted in 2006 following falling demand in the aftermath of the August 2005 accident when the company s U.S.- Sikorsky S-76 helicopter fell into the Baltic Sea soon after takeoff from Helsinki. All 14 on board two Finnish pilots and 12 passengers drowned as the helicopter sank in around 10 seconds. An international investigative commission last year found that a malfunction in the helicopter s steering system had been the likely cause of the crash.

Less than 30 leaves Elcoteq Tallinn

Elcoteq Tallinn told evertiq that this will concern less than 30 employees from different departments. We are talking about changing the organization of work with the aim to reduce the expenses and to improve the efficiency of the company. As a result, the work duties of certain White Collars in Elcoteq Tallinn will change, they will be offered a new job or their employment contracts will be terminated a company spoke s person told evertiq. This change will concern less than 30 employees from different departments. This is a normal part of continuous improvement of the company. The main of these changes is to increase the competitiveness of the company and to adjust the organization to the needs of our current and new customers.

Estonian Pharmaceutical Market Should Reach a Value of US 33

The Estonia Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Estonias pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry. The Estonian pharmaceutical market is estimated to have reached US 233mn in 2007, rising by 12.5 on the previous year. Key drivers of growth over the next five years will be increased healthcare spending and strong economic growth forecasts, which should push the value of the market to US 331mn by 2012. Indeed, over the last decade, Estonia has increased its focus on providing public services, with a 10 annual increase in its healthcare spending. Such an investment is urgently needed as poor healthcare has been seen as a weak link in Estonia s 15-year post-Soviet economic 8216 miracle. However, the country is still struggling with persistent rates of some infectious diseases, including the highest HIV infection rate in the EU by some distance.