The massive wave of cyber attacks which have hit Estonia's web sites this month are a security issue which concern NATO, the alliance's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, quoted by an AFP report, said.
'These cyber attacks have a security dimension without any doubt and that is the reason that NATO expertise was sent to Estonia to see what can and should be done,' he was quoted by the AFP report as saying in a meeting of lawmakers from NATO member states held in Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
'Does this have a security implication‾ Yes, it does have a security implication. Is it relevant for NATO‾ Yes, it is relevant for NATO. It is a subject which I am afraid will stay on the political agenda in the times to come,' the official said.
The AFP report also said NATO nations have sent cyber experts to Estonia, one of the 26 members in the military alliance, as has the US to help it combat the cyber attacks which have jammed mostly government web sites.
Estonia has said that some of the cyber attacks came from Russian government computers, including the Kremlin, but Moscow denies any role, the AFP report said.
The cyber attacks on the high-tech country began after Estonian officials removed a statue on April 27 from central Tallinn which commemorates Soviet troops killed fighting the Nazis, the AFP report said.
Many Estonians consider the statue a reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation when their country was a Soviet republic after World War II, the report further said.