When Georgian troops, at the order of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, attacked separatists in South Ossetia, one of two breakaway provinces all hell broke lose in the region.

A war, which is more about Russian president Vladimir Putin asserting centuries old Russian supremacy over the region and controlling oil supplies, belongs to the old days of 19th century imperialism. However there are some differences. In this war there are rumours of a new form of combat, the cyber war. Even before the first shot was fired, Russian hackers apparently sabotaged Georgian Internet sites while President Putin marshalled forces on Georgia's border and assigned targets for bombers and warships in the Black Sea.

Soon government websites were overloaded with Denial of Service attacks. These attacks clearly came from Russia and were swiftly labelled 'cyber warfare' by the largely hysterical press. On Saturday we reported how this escalated when the University of Alabama at Birmingham more than 500 e-mails were received in a 90 minutes period claiming to be a BBC story revealing that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was gay.

In other words botnets were being used to distribute propaganda for the Russians. But cooler heads in the security industry are starting to wonder about how much official input there has been into this cyber war. No doubt the Russian Federation has gained from having rumours of cyber war teams opening a second front against Georgia, but this is starting to look less likely. A military commander is not going to care that much if his opponent's website is taken down. If the enemy's communications system is still intact, if he has the infrastructure to wage a counter attack, then sticking a picture of Hitler on his web-site is not going to save you many troops.

One would think that any military cyber war would be directed at bringing down the entire Internet. Anyone who has lived in a former communist country will tell you that the telecommunications system is unreliable particularly in outlying regions. It is also very insecure.

Missed target
Yet for some reason Russian's so-called military cyber warriors have missed these targets completely. While television stations have had their websites defaced, they have managed to broadcast dramatically throughout the war. Where is the high technology that the Russian military should have to jam or take out such broadcasts?

Security analysts are now waking up to the fact that the so-called Cyber warfare is just a bunch of pro-Russian script kiddies. Most of the time, these types spend their time evading the law and a clip around the ear from their parents. However in the case of a war, when their government appears to be fighting against someone or something, these script-kiddies have social approval for their actions.

It was script-kiddies who were behind attacks in Europe backing their government's stance on the removal of a war memorial in Estonia. At the time, the Russian government almost officially blessed their actions. Likewise this is the case with the recent escalation of the cyber war by spreading propaganda viruses and worms to form new botnets.

On one hand it clearly helps the Russian war effort and it is tempting to see it as another cyber offensive. But creating bot-nets also helps spammers and other cyber criminals who are running a business on the back of them. While Russia is a bit slack at taking down cyber criminals, it is still good for business if the organised crime behind a botnet does not have any police sniffing around. The Russian government is not going to stop you setting up a spam bot-net if it is delivering pro-war propaganda, even if it also sells Viagra on the side.

If the Russian Federation has not used any cyber warriors in its war against Georgia, but has instead relied on a Dad's Army of script kiddies and spammers, the question is why not? For the last few years there has been much ink wasted on the importance of cyber-warfare in the future. While many point to China as being very active in this field, most hacks have been to find out corporate secrets rather than attempting acts of destruction - part of warfare, but not exactly packing your troops across the borders with their bayonets fixed.

Meanwhile the US Air Force has decided to actually close its cyber warfare division claiming it is better that someone else run it. Cyber war apparently is less important than splashing out on a few jets. Those who warn that cyber warfare is the next big thing are usually the soon to be retired or retired, generals who no-one listens too anyway.

While there is no doubt that cyber warriors would be a cost effective way of taking down an enemy, so far no military establishment has considered them important enough to give them an effective crack of the whip. Georgia, which could have been a dress rehearsal for a Russian team to get in action, has just proven that it, like the US, have no plans to wage a cyber war. X

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