By Gregg Keizer
August 12, 2008

Security researchers today disputed claims that a well-known Russian hacker-hosting network is responsible for cyberattacks against sites belonging to Georgia, the former Soviet republic that has been battling Russian military forces since Friday.

Rather than blame the notorious Russian Business Network -- as researcher Jart Armin did over the weekend -- other researchers said today that it appears that the attacks originated from a "hacker militia" of Russian botnet herders and volunteers.

"They mobilize themselves without a need for a central location to do so, distribute the targets, discuss the attack approaches, come up with a plan on the coordination, and you have everyone participating," Bulgarian security researcher Dancho Danchev said in an instant messaging interview early today.

Danchev and others have found evidence that points to a self-starting militia composed of volunteer hackers and cybercriminals who control large-scale bots, or collections of previously-compromised computers, as being behind the escalating attacks that have knocked Georgian sites offline.