Strategypage reports that the recent Estonian-Russian Cyber War was led by the amateurs and then the professionals jumped in. Wrote Hutchison at Strategypage:
The Russian government denied any involvement in the Cyber War attacks. But once Estonia called on NATO for support, the Internet based attacks began to abate, and soon stopped. Most Russians were not happy about Estonia recently joining NATO, either. But the Russian government didn't want NATO to decide that the mutual-defense clauses of the treaty applied to Cyber War attacks.
Making unofficial attacks on another country is nothing new. Throughout the Cold War, Russia sponsored terrorist groups around the world, as long as the terrorists were attacking someone the Russians had a dispute with. Until the 19th century, it was common for nations to look the other way as pirates, who they gave clandestine support to, attacked the shipping of other countries.
The ending of the war shows that the government may not have started the war (although they may have), but they sure ended it in control. The conflict threatened to expand with NATO involvement.
Oh, and for some background on the pirate reference, see this post of mine. We have a long way to go before we reach pre-20th century levels of private combatants, but the civilian cyber-warriors of Russia are one reminder that this is a trend whose logical conclusion is a world we've seen before.
