29.2.2016
Minister Yıldırım recalled that the Cyber Security Board, established with the regulation made in 2012, met on February 10, and stated that cyber security has now become equivalent to national security. Touching on how easy attacks are in the cyber environment, Yıldırım said, “With a small spyware, you can destroy a large infrastructure and stop the automation system. Everything essential in daily life, such as electricity, natural gas, finance, and transportation systems, carries the risk of being disrupted. Therefore, we need to strengthen our firewalls.”
Minister Yıldırım said, “We are establishing a secure public network. It will be completed in one or two months. We are setting up a special network for certain critical communications and data flows. Like an intranet, it will not be an open system but a closed system. All institutions across the country will communicate via this network.”
Stating that in the 1990s, when the internet entered Turkey's agenda, the authority to allocate the “.tr” domain name system was given to METU, Minister Yıldırım said: “The recent cyber attacks revealed that there were too many security vulnerabilities at METU. The Ministry and BTK intervened, neutralizing these attacks in a short time and preventing major damage. The finance sector was particularly under serious attack. We repelled it through joint efforts, but the danger is not over. In recent years, we made a regulation to consolidate all domain names under BTK. Negotiations are still ongoing regarding the transfer of domain names from METU to BTK.”