Turkey ninth most targeted by cyberattacks

ANKARA

Turkey has ranked ninth on the list of countries most targeted by cyberattacks, according to a report by Turkish defense company STM. 

Last year’s cyberattacks on banks were also mentioned of the report, titled the “Cyber Security Threat Report,” prepared by STM. Turkey followed the United States, China, Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Italy and France on the list of cyberattacked countries, Anadolu Agency reported.

The report also underlined it was part of national security to protect technologies used in energy, information, water works, agriculture, education and financial services.

The report also said the security of Turkey’s e-state services, which includes critical information about the personal data of citizens, is also significant. Chaotic results might occur if the e-state system, which has 26 million active users, is targeted by cyberattacks, the report said, adding that in such cases companies might be launched or bank loans could be taken under the names of unrelated citizens. 

 The report also said “ransom attacks” around the world doubled in 2015 compared to the previous year. This term is used for cyberattacks in which the attackers block the target’s system and demand a ransom to undo the damage. Turkey ranked eighth in the world among countries which are targets of ransom attacks. 

Turkey is prepared for any kind of cyberattack, according to the country’s technology minister, Fikri Işık, who said in January “all necessary measures” were being taken over the latest cyberattack, which targeted hundreds of thousands of Turkish websites.

Also in January, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) launched a comprehensive project to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity.

A research and development project to assure the security of the infrastructure of critical servers was started to develop more secure Internet infrastructure for critical sectors such as banking, energy, transportation, communication, water works and health.

TÜBİTAK will have a budget of 6 million Turkish Liras to operate the project, which also aims to remove security breaches in Turkish servers. 

The infrastructure of critically important servers will be closely tracked by broadband systems expected to be developed as part of the project, including developing firewalls against international attacks.

Turkey experienced a series of cyberattacks beginning on Dec. 14, 2015, which targeted nearly 400,000 websites with the extension “.tr,” nearly coming to a halt in the morning hours of Dec. 21, 2015, after which recovery and damage assessment was launched by leading IT organizations along with Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ).

In response to the cyberattack, Turkish IT professionals banned access to Turkish DNS servers from abroad before communication channels were reopened. Around 400,000 websites, however, were denied access from abroad.