Official denies data leak on gov't website

ANKARA

Following the recent allegation over data leakage on e-Devlet, the Turkish official website offering government services, the head of the presidency’s Digital Transformation Office has denied such claims, stating that it is technically impossible for citizens' data to get stolen in any way.

"They are basically advertisements by fraudulent and cybercriminal organizations to seize and sell data," Ali Taha Koç said in his presentation to the parliament's industry, trade, information and technology commission on June 6.

According to Koç, e-Devlet, the Turkish e-government gateway, does not store any data beyond the users' usernames and passwords. Due to strong encryption methods employed during user logins, it is technically impossible for any data to be leaked or hacked, he said.

Furthermore, even if a user's e-Devlet password were compromised, Koç assured that measures such as two-stage login and "big data analysis" will promptly notify citizens to protect their accounts.

Koç stressed that the office meticulously investigates websites claiming to possess stolen data, reporting them to the national cyber incident response center and blocking their access within Türkiye. He labeled these sites as "pure phishing sites" attempting to deceive users, revealing that over 200,000 of them had been blocked to date.

In addition, Koç shared information regarding the system's expansion. Since its establishment in 2008 with nine participating institutions, the number of integrated institutions has increased to 985. Additionally, the range of digital services has grown from 22 to over 7,000, benefiting 63 million users across the country, Koç said.

Koç announced the office's efforts to serve earthquake-hit citizens, highlighting that they received timely notifications when household support payments were deposited into their bank accounts. Moreover, the system informed 150,000 survivors that the Natural Disaster Insurance Institution (DASK) policies had been paid, he added.