Estonia institutes volunteer cyber army (net-security.org)

Everything old is new again. It would be interesting to see online groups much, like militias in the 1700s, getting called up by the government in a time of war, but keeping out spies would be difficult. Let's face it you are working with some of the few people on the planet that actually understand encryption and stenography.

The other side of cyber armies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

"The people who work in IT in the U.S. tend to be quite suspicious of government," says Stewart Baker, a former general counsel at the NSA. "Maybe they think that they're so much smarter than governments that they'll be able to handle an attack on their own. But there's a standoffishness that makes it much harder to have that kind of easy confidence that you can call on people in an emergency and that they'll be respond."

That section made me laugh, seriously, it's not because they think they are smarter and better, they just don't want to deal with the gov and be told what to do.

This is a much more interesting story about Estonia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Do_It_2008

They got 50,000 people to clean up 10,000 tons of dumped rubbish spread over the whole country with a year of buildup and planning and 5 hours of work on the day.

What a cool country. The more I hear about Estonia the more I like it.

Interesting concept, but what exactly is a volunteer cyber-soldier supposed to do?