NATO's cyber-brains gaze at the future of war

Behind the walls of a high-security lab, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's top cyber-minds are trying to predict the evolution of conflict in an Internet-dependent world.

While they play down disaster-movie scenarios of total meltdown, experts warn cyber-attacks will be part and parcel of future fighting.

Tallinn is home to a cutting-edge unit known in NATO-speak as the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. The city is the capital of Estonia, whose flourishing hi-tech industry has earned it the label "E-Stonia".

"Definitely from the cyber-space perspective, I think we've gone further than we imagined in science fiction," said Ilmar Tamm, the Estonian colonel at its helm.

Its base is a 1905 building where military communications experts have toiled away since the days of carrier pigeons and the telegraph.

The centre's dozens of experts second-guess potential adversaries, gazing into what they dub the "fifth battlespace", after land, sea, air and space.

"The whole myriad and complex area makes it a very difficult problem to solve, and at the same time it keeps a very convenient grey area for the bad guys," explained Tamm.

"Many states have realised that this is really something that can be used as a weapon... That we should not ignore. It will have a future impact," he said.

"I'm not so naive that I'd say conventional warfare will go away. But we should expect it to be more combined," he added.

Bitter experience taught Estonia -- one of the world's most wired places and a NATO member since 2004 -- all about cyber-conflict. - AFP