BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu attended the WSIS Forum organized under the theme "Information and Communication Technologies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals."
The WSIS Forum, which began in Geneva and will continue from April 8-12, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, who traveled to Geneva as part of the program, spoke about the measures taken by Turkey's regulatory authority to ensure cybersecurity.
Emphasizing that the spread of technology into all dimensions of our lives introduces us to new risks in the context of cybersecurity, Karagözoğlu noted that ensuring cybersecurity is not only a necessity to combat threats in technology-intensive areas but also a significant factor affecting nations' prosperity and national security.
Providing information on the scope of Turkey's National Cybersecurity Strategy and Action Plan, Karagözoğlu stated, “We need to act quickly to address the needs regarding the ‘global skills gap’ in cybersecurity. In this context, we are organizing cybersecurity trainings for corporate CERTs from various critical sectors. We also have initiatives to provide trainings and competitions for students and graduates. Over the last 2 years, more than 2,500 (two thousand five hundred) trainees have participated in our training programs. We have established a cyber-zone laboratory to improve our training programs and increase activity opportunities. We are conducting early detection, alarm, and warning studies regarding technological measures. We have developed some detection and prevention systems that detect botnet command-and-control centers and malware, providing visibility and playing a major role in enhancing the national cybersecurity level in Turkey.”
Emphasizing that cyber threat intelligence is another important topic, Karagözoğlu shared, “We work in coordination with many parties, including internet actors, international organizations, judicial authorities, research centers, and private companies. More than 1,000 corporate CERTs have been established within public and private institutions in Turkey. Since the cyber world is an unlimited domain, ensuring cybersecurity is a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary issue. To combat cyber threats, we need to work together with users, the private sector, NGOs, academia, and international counterparts. TR-CERT is a member of FIRST, TI, ITU IMPACT, and CAMP, and collaborates as much as possible to enhance the sharing of cybersecurity knowledge and expertise. Additionally, we have integrated our threat intelligence systems with NATO MN-MISP. We also believe that international standardization activities are very important. We take international information security and cybersecurity standards into account in our regulations for critical sectors.”
President Karagözoğlu also touched upon BTK's activities in ensuring security in the field of information technologies. Noting that the sources and targets of cyber attacks vary from country to country, Karagözoğlu said, “While the target may be in one country, the command and control center could be in another. Therefore, information sharing plays a very important role. In this regard, Turkey has signed cooperation agreements with many countries. Additionally, we have ratified the Cybercrime Convention, which covers various crimes, including those committed through the internet and other computer networks. All these cybercrimes have now been incorporated into our national legislation. At the same time, the Turkish Penal Code covers unauthorized access to IT systems, unauthorized interference with IT systems, interference, alteration, and destruction. One of the main pillars of our efforts is to develop a network based on national and international cooperation, which we call an ‘organic network.’ Ensuring the continuous and sustainable expansion of this organic network through rapid and live information sharing among parties is mutually beneficial for all our allies.”
President Karagözoğlu: We Can Best Combat Cyber Challenges with Strong Partnerships
Stating that the best way to combat cyber challenges is through strong partnerships, Karagözoğlu noted, “We are determined to engage in close multilateral cooperation on training, education, information sharing, and situational awareness regarding cyber attacks and terrorism, and we expect the same from all countries. Disinformation carried out through digital and traditional media erodes trust in institutions and organizations. Especially during election periods, fake news and disinformation activities influence voters in the wrong direction.
All online platforms, particularly social media companies, need to take responsibility for fake news; they need to find ways to report disinformation more effectively. Additionally, they must respect the decisions of judicial and administrative authorities. Of course, all this must be done without undermining freedom of speech,” he said.
Karagözoğlu concluded his remarks by saying, “Terrorist attacks on humanity's common values worldwide and, most importantly, on the right to life, as well as content produced by terrorist organizations for propaganda, demonstrate how important it is to fight against terrorists' illegal and harmful use of the internet. The document titled ‘Tackling Online Disinformation: A European Approach,’ published by the European Commission in April 2018, calls for global online platforms to develop effective mechanisms to combat disinformation. As this is a global problem, cooperation among states is of great importance. The fight against terrorist organizations must be independent of the origin, race, religion, and ideology associated with these groups. Cooperation between all countries should be strengthened with this reality in mind.”