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EESTI ELU reedel, 4. juunil 2021 — Friday, June 4, 2021
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Opinion: U.S. pipeline hack and concerns about Canadian cyber security Marcus Kolga The Toronto Star, May 2021 A Russian criminal hacker group behind a major attack against a major U.S. oil and gas pipeline has caused sub stantial disruptions through out the Eastern United States, and its effects could trickle into Canada as well. The Russian cyber criminals, known as DarkSide, hacked into the Colonial Pipelines network this month, leading the company to shut down all of its operations for nearly a week. The fuel shortages affecting the entire Eastern United States demonstrate the potential threats from malign foreign actors against critical infrastruc ture. The situation also raises questions about whether Canada is prepared to defend against these actors. Colonial Pipelines was tar geted with what is commonly known as a ransomware attack. As the name suggests, criminal hackers identify and exploit vulnerabilities in a targeted system to access and seize control of data and even entire networks and systems and a ransom is demanded to release them. In the Colonial Pipelines case, Russian hackers stole over 100GB of data from the Georgia-based company and then locked up part of the pipe line, after which the criminal hacker group demanded a ransom. The Colonial Pipelines sys tem stretches from Texas to Maine, supplying gasoline, die sel and jet fuel supplies to the entire Eastern US. Its near weeklong shutdown has forced the U.S. government to approve alternate methods to transport oil and fuel across the region, including railways and roads. The Wall Street Journal reported Colonial paid $4.4 mil lion in ransom. Cyber criminals in past hacks have demanded amounts ranging from as little
as a few thousand to millions of While the Russian govern dollars in order to release data ment has denied involvement and hijacked systems. In Octo and there is yet no hard evi ber 2019, a Canadian insurance dence pinning the crime at the company reportedly paid $1.3 Kremlin’s feet, those of us who million to recover 20 servers have watched Russia closely and 1,000 workstations. have a running joke: we Over the past several years, shouldn’t believe anything, until cyber security experts have the Kremlin denies it. warned about the vulnerability Just as we ourselves are be of Canada’s critical infrastruc coming more reliant on the ture to foreign hackers and cy “Internet of things,” so too are ber criminals. In its 2020 threat the operations of our critical assessment report, Canada’s infrastructure. The threat of Centre for Cyber Security noted hacking or interference in the that “cyber threat actors will functioning of our hospitals, intentionally seek to disrupt power grids, traffic networks Canadian critical infrastructure and beyond could put countless and cause major damage.” Canadian lives at risk, to say In July 2020, Russian nothing of the devastating government hackers attempted economic costs. to steal COVID-19-related vac The consensus amongst cine research from facilities in experts is that much of the Canada. The Communications Western world and indeed Security Establishment (CSE) Canada are unprepared to de identified the hackers as be fend against these threats. longing to the Russian intelli CSE has developed baseline gence APT-29 cyber warfare cyber security guides for small teams, known as “The Dukes” to medium sized businesses to and “Cozy Bear,” whose goal help them secure their net was to hinder Canadian response works. However, it’s unknown efforts to COVID. how many businesses have In December, Russian a dopted these security protocols. government hackers infiltrated critical updates of Solar Winds Greater personal cyber literacy software. The hack affected and the promotion of simple large parts of the U.S. govern habits like adopting two-factor ment, NATO and multiple tech authentication, at a minimum, should be promoted among and utility companies. Canadians, and at all levels of This attack may have been government and business. thwarted if a strikingly simple The cost of engaging in solution was used – strong c yber and digital information password protocols. According warfare against Canada and our to the New York Times, an allies by malign foreign states intern at Solar Winds set the and actors is extremely low. company’s password to its Without strong deterrence – and master updating system to the ability of our intelligence SolarWinds123. The easily community to actively defend hacked password contributed to against and to proactively neu one of the biggest cyber attacks tralize threats – we invite fur on record. ther attacks against us. The cost While it is unclear whether the Colonial Pipelines hack can of that may soon be counted not be attributed to the Russian just in millions of dollars, but government, Russian pro-ultimately, in lives lost. democracy and human rights (Marcus Kolga is director of activist, Garry Kasparov, tweeted DisinfoWatch.org and is a that “no Russian hackers … Senior Fellow at the Mac would operate without his donald-Laurier Institute and the [Vladimir Putin’s] sanction.” CDA Institute.)
Toronto candle lighting for the victims of the June 1941 Soviet deportations TORONTO – The Baltic communities in Canada will commemorate the 80th anni versary of the Soviet depor tations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on June 14, 1941 and will honour the tens of thousands of victims – mostly women and children – with a candle lighting commemora tion at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square at 7 pm, June 14th, 2021. In August 1939, the Soviet Union signed a friendship treaty with Nazi Germany that faci litated the coordinated start of WWII, when Stalin’s Red Army and Hitler’s forces attacked Poland. The treaty, known as
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, carved up Europe between the Soviets and Nazis, whereby Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanian were assigned to Stalin for violent annexation and coloni zation. In order to break down resis tance against Soviet coloniza tion, Stalin ordered mass arrests and deportations to forcibly displace indigenous populations and secure the illegal Soviet annexation of all three Baltic nations. The violent terror that Stalin imposed on the Baltic States provoked a mass exodus of refugees in 1944, who fled the return of advancing Soviet forces
– which brought with it mass human rights abuses and a new wave of repressions. Millions fled, many arriving in Canada, where they found refuge and have contributed to building the prosperous, just and tolerant nation we know today. Respecting COVID social distancing protocols, members of the Baltic communities are invited to individually place a candle at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto between 7–8 pm, in memory of the over 40,000 people deported on the night of June 14, 1941.
Photo: tokyoweekender.com
Kaido Höövelson — the Baltic Champion of Sumo Wrestling Vincent Teetsov Years ago at a hotel restau rant in Tallinn, I recall seeing people glued to a TV screen over by the bar. In between bites of a late breakfast, they were watching a wrestling match. Not the Olympics, not WWE. It was sumo wrestling, broadcast six hours ahead from Japan. The centre of their attention was a wrestler by the name of Kaido Höövelson, and for a moment, his breath, the spectators’ breath, and the breath of those diners, was held all at once… The pressure and tension around a sumo ring is palpable. At times, voices may call out and cheer from the back rows, but at the front, you will find the most serious, concentrated faces. There is a certain deco rum in sumo, where you won’t see a coach or their assistants running around the ring yelling out to their wrestler. The ring is also treated as hallowed ground. It’s call a dohyo, which refers to the clay and surrounding bundles of rice straw that make up the ring. Among other rituals, the clay is swept and sumo wrestlers begin each “bout”, or round, with an act of purification, by throwing salt into the air. Then they stomp their feet on the clay to vanquish evil spirits and take a drink of water. Sumo may not technically be a martial art, as it doesn’t originate from warfare or the military. But as with other Japanese fighting sports, it is a deeply respected and meaningful art that is connected to Shinto rituals like these, stemming from its traditional ties to Japanese festivals. For Kaido Höövelson, known in the ring as Baruto Kaito (re lating to the name of the Baltic Sea in Japanese), these rituals and this sport were his life from 2004 to 2013. He’s the most famous Estonian to have par taken in sumo wrestling in Japan, which, historically, was not so open to non-Japanese athletes. Others have come from outside into the sport, including Fiamalu Penitani (known pro fessionally as Musashimaru Kōyō), who was born in Ameri can Samoa. That being said, Höövelson is one of only two Estonians to have done so, the other being his friend Ott Juurikas.
Höövelson started out in the sport in his adolescence, in addition to practicing judo; maximizing his stature and six feet and six and half inches of height for a career in wrestling. By age 20, he was ready to ascend up the sumo wrestling rankings in the sport’s home land. Despite being from else where, Höövelson was accepted into the Mihogaseki heya (usually translated as “stable” in English) for training. In compe tition, he wore a mawashi loin cloth and had the traditional long hair tied up into a chonmage bun on top of his head. From his starting point, his career was marked with impres sive climbs in the rankings and divisions of professional sumo. In 2010, he attained the second-highest rank of sumo – ozeki. At any one time, there are normally only three to five ozeki. All that remained was the highest rank, yokuzuna, a rank ing that less than 100 sumo wrestlers have obtained since records were written down. An athlete won’t always win, though. By nature, sumo wrest ling matches zip by very quick ly, typically in a few seconds, and a handful of minutes in ex ceptional cases. Wrestlers will sometimes skid around on the clay before being toppled off their feet or pushed out. One minor mistake could put a wrestler into a compromising position that launches them in the air towards the edge of the ring, like when Höövelson faced off against grand cham pion Asashōryū Akinori at the Tokyo Sumo Tournament in 2010. That may be another reason why viewing each match is so intense, because each moment counts. Sloping off from huge wins, health challenges and injuries brought Höövelson down again, as he had to contend with the regulations and ranking rules of sumo tournaments. These wrest lers aren’t given the luxury of extensive time to heal and reha bilitate. One’s strengths can also become damaging. One of Höövel son’s best moves, pick ing up his opponent cleanly off the ground with his arms and placing them outside of the ring boundary, exacerbated a knee injury he had. But he always (Continued on page 10)
