The winners of the International Cyber Security Exercise, organized by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the Information Technologies and Communication Authority with the support of the International Telecommunication Union, received their awards.
This year for the first time, the Cyber Security Exercise—where the technical infrastructure, preparation of questions, software, and evaluations were handled by BTK—concluded with the participation of approximately 90 competitors from 19 teams across 17 different countries, including Turkey.
Speaking at the Award Ceremony, BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu stated that the global nature of cyber attacks is intensifying, making it increasingly difficult to ensure the security of countries and the entire cyberspace in terms of both targets and impact areas.
Highlighting the importance of cyber exercises for experience sharing between countries, Karagözoğlu said, "I would like to emphasize that the cyber exercises we conduct serve as an important tool for experience sharing and cooperation between countries. For this purpose, it has become essential for countries to simultaneously demonstrate their coordination, cooperation, information sharing, and communication capabilities at the international level. Bilateral and regional agreements between countries stand out as key steps in strengthening cooperation in the field of cyber security."
President Karagözoğlu: All Infrastructure of the Exercise Was Prepared by USOM
Drawing attention to the fact that the technical infrastructure and scenarios of the exercise were prepared under the National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM), Karagözoğlu said, "I want to once again express my satisfaction with successfully completing an international-scale exercise using our technical infrastructure and scenarios, which were entirely developed with our own resources under USOM."
Stating that the teams gained valuable experience to strengthen their cyber incident response capabilities and enhance their preparedness levels in line with the prepared scenarios, Karagözoğlu said, "We all witnessed the teams' fierce competition together and completed our event after a challenging struggle. We thank each country that honored us by participating in our exercise, which provided a wonderful experience for all of us through the gains acquired over two days. We wish you to leave Turkey with fond memories, and we hope to continue our successful cooperation in cyber security in the future, building on the gains from this exercise."
In the exercise, the team from Spain took first place. Lithuania came in second, while Turkmenistan secured third place. Participation certificates were also presented to all other teams that took part in the competition.