Last spring, the small Baltic country of Estonia suffered a string of denial-of-service attacks that crippled the Web sites of some of its banks, political parties, and newspapers. Many accused Russia of the cyberattack in retaliation for Estonia's removal of a bronze memorial to Soviet soldiers serving in World War II.

But as ComputerWorldUK.com reports [1], the accusers were right about the motivation but wrong about the attacker.

Dmitri Galushkevich used his home PC to launch a denial-of-service attack that knocked down the website for the political party of Estonia's prime minister for several days, said Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman for the Northeast District Prosecutor's Office in Tallinn, Estonia's capital. Galushkevich must pay 17,500 kroons (£825).

Galushkevich is the only person who has been convicted since the cyberattack in April and May 2007 crippled the websites of banks, schools and government agencies.

Maesalu said Galushkevich committed the cyberattack to register his own displeasure at the memorial's removal. He also said the authorities have no other suspects at this time.