Stating that they closely followed the numerous institutions to which they provided service through the SISATEM cyber security center of excellence, Havelsan General Manager and CEO Mr. Ahmet Hamdi Atalay cleared the air on the speculations regarding the increase of cyber-attacks that frequently came onto the agenda following the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. Mr. Atalay said, “Despite the allegations, Turkey did not encounter any special attacks after July 15th. No extraordinary attacks occurred. We closely follow all the institutions to which we provide services. Contrary to speculations, a severe attack has not occurred. Still, attacks always exist. As a result of its geo-political location, Turkey has been at the very center of the attacks for years. We had many deficiencies concerning this issue in the past years, yet we made great progress in the last 4 – 5 years. We unfortunately did not have an addressee in the government or in the state on cyber security issues. Upon a decree of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication has been authorized as an addressee in respect to this issue.  With the crucial contributions of the Information Security Association - of which I have previously been the president – a document on Turkey’s cyber security strategy was signed in 2012.  A Cyber security action plan was signed right after and the new version of that action plan has now been draw up and published. Important ground was covered on creating awareness regarding this issue and this made Turkey more cautious compared to the past. We could now claim that we are more reliable today. Then again, we must underline the rapid growth of threats and dangers; so no matter how great the measures adopted are, they are almost insufficient most of the time. According to the research on the mobile devices we daily use, there are 2 million types of harmful software. Mobile devices turned out to be an important type of cyber threat. Virus protection or other measures are not being sufficiently utilized for these devices. Therefore, each mobile device becomes a potential source of threat. We are using these devices as a routine part of our activities and thus we avail a back door to the cyber - attacks. Despite all the measures adopted by the institutions, if a mobile phone is connected through such networks and if a weakness exists on your mobile device, then you automatically create a weakness at that institution’s network as well. On the other hand, an increase is being observed in ransomware during recent years. 1.3 million different types of ransomware are active throughout the internet. Maybe a single computer is affected in the ransomware software and the damaged users are trying to get rid of the threat by paying thousands of dollars but the open doors at that computer also indicate that new and greater threats are on their way. You get informed about the existence of the ransomware or other harmful software only when your computer is affected by them. Then again, it is not quite easy to detect the threats in which advanced technologies named as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) beforehand. Information Security Association conducted a Key Study on this issue and we examined an APT attack that enabled a data leak between America and China. This data leak, carried out by a group in China against America, lasted for 8 years and the Americans noticed this incident 8 years later. It may be too late when you notice these types of attacks after the fact. These attacks and ransomware oriented attacks are becoming widespread and I can say that this danger is quite crucial.”

SISATEM Provides Cyber Security Services to Governmental Institutions and Enterprises