The United States, Great Britain and Estonia have accused Russian military intelligence of a cyber attack on the Georgian government and media websites in that country.
They characterized the attack as "an attempt to sow discord and disrupt the life of ordinary Georgians."
Those three countries raised the issue in the Security Council after the Georgian ambassador informed the most powerful UN body in February about the major attack in October. Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson read a statement in front of UK Ambassador Karen Pearce and Acting US Ambassador Cherit Norman Schale, saying the cyber attacks "are part of Russia's long-running campaign of hostile and destabilizing activities against Georgia and are part of a wider pattern of malign activity".
The three Western countries said the attacks showed a "continuous pattern of reckless ... cyber operations against multiple countries" by Russia's GRU military intelligence service.
"These actions contradict Russia's attempts to claim that it is acting responsibly in cyberspace," they said, adding that "irresponsibility in cyberspace is dangerous for all of us."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia announced that the cyber-attack on October 28 "was aimed at the national security of Georgia and was aimed at harming Georgian citizens and government structures by disrupting and paralyzing the functionality of various organizations, causing public anxiety."
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims as "baseless and politically motivated," saying there was no evidence of Russian involvement.
It added that the claims reflected Georgia's effort to "satanicize" Russia and warned that this would further worsen their relationship.
In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which tried to regain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Aphazia, and set up military bases there.
Russia raised the issue of cybercrime in the United Nations.
In December, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution sponsored by Russia, which began the process of drafting a new international agreement on combating cybercrime, despite the objections of the European Union, the United States and other countries. That resolution establishes a committee of experts representing all regions of the world "to develop a comprehensive international convention on suppressing the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes."
The board is expected to meet in August and agree on the framework of its future work.
Shale, the American envoy, said at the time that the Russian resolution "will undermine international cooperation in the fight against cyber-crime, at a time when greater coordination is essential."
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