The Ankara Branch of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers and the Ankara Chamber of Commerce has launched the “Cyber Homeland and Defense National Workshop.” The workshop will address the topic of cyber defense in all its details.
Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, also attended the opening of the event that brings together the cybersecurity sector. Sayan spoke about the importance of digital transformation. Sayan stated, “Today, digital transformation is no longer a choice or preference, but a complete necessity. Digital transformation and new technologies are possible with strong infrastructures. With the correct and timely investments we have made to date, we possess the capacity to support these developments with our strong and alternative infrastructures on land, at sea, in the air, and in space.”
Drawing attention to the global dimensions of the attacks, Sayan shared, “When we look at phishing attacks occurring on a global scale, we see that the number of attacks recorded in the first three months of 2022 exceeded 1 million for the first time. According to the ‘2022 Global Risks Report’ published by the World Economic Forum, cyber attacks are listed as one of the biggest global risks after climate change and the pandemic. Research shows that a cyber attack occurs every 11 seconds.”
Sayan also touched on the purposes of cyber attacks, stating, “The aim of cyber attacks has gone beyond financial gain, evolving into actions such as collapsing a country’s and a city’s infrastructure, rendering vital systems like hospitals, water, electricity, and traffic inoperable, spreading fear, and damaging countries’ reputations.”
Emphasizing their desire to always advance the work in the field of cybersecurity, Sayan said, “As institutions and individuals responsible for cybersecurity, it is crucial to continuously elevate our competencies to the next level. Cybersecurity expertise requires navigating laborious and labor-intensive processes and competing not only with new technologies but also with time. At this point, mastering cyber incident response processes and enhancing our capacity becomes essential to meet needs. Exercises that translate theoretical and technical knowledge into practice provide a tremendous opportunity to measure our cybersecurity maturity and identify our strengths and weaknesses.”