Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated that the National Cyber Incidents Response Center (USOM) has prevented access to over 97 thousand malicious connections this year, adding that “USOM forwarded over 12 thousand cybersecurity notifications to relevant institutions this year to ensure necessary measures are taken.”

Speaking at the opening of the 17th International Information Security and Cryptology Conference held at the Presidential Library, Minister Uraloğlu reported that information is now digitalized and accessible through internet networks. He underscored the emergence of two strong defense concepts in cybersecurity and cryptology, elucidating that “We can consider the concept of cybersecurity as a wall protecting information from external threats. Cryptology, on the other hand, is seen as the strongest fortress of this wall. This fortress equipped with complex encryption methods ensures that information is only readable by authorized personnel.”

Pointing out the increasing importance of cyber threat management with the rise of internet-related data breaches in recent years, Uraloğlu explained how the application called “Internet of Things” produced by devices connected to the internet has permeated every aspect of life. Uraloğlu emphasized that cyber attacks are no longer merely a technological issue, evolving into serious threats that impact every dimension of economic and social life. He stressed the growing significance of innovative security measures to combat these threats and the importance of developing innovative security measures against such threats.

“WARFARE HAS NOW MOVED INTO THE DIGITAL REALM” Minister Uraloğlu drew attention to the fact that warfare has now emerged in the realm of information technology, stating, “14 sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and 2,304 corporate CERTs operate under the coordination of USOM, alongside 7,873 cyber security specialists safeguarding our country’s virtual and cyber borders. This year, we detected over 97 thousand harmful connections and blocked them at the infrastructure level. USOM forwarded over 12 thousand cybersecurity notifications to relevant institutions to ensure necessary measures are implemented.”

Uraloğlu underscored that the top priority in cybersecurity is the localization and nationalization of device production from software, explaining how applications entirely developed locally and nationally such as Avcı, Azad, Kasırga, Atmaca, and Kule provide the country’s cybersecurity. He indicated that USOM conducts service and vulnerability scans of 284 different ports weekly, detailing, “894 different vulnerability designs are utilized in the scans. USOM can scan web sites falling within the critical scope, such as ‘gov.tr, org.tr, pol.tr, edu.tr’, in Turkey for vulnerabilities within 7 hours. The Atmaca project prevents hundreds of risks. With routine scans conducted for nearly 17 million IP addresses aimed at critical private sector organizations and public institutions, we proactively identify risks stemming from vulnerabilities on each of these IP addresses.”

Through artificial intelligence technology developed by USOM, it was revealed that 61,293 domain names were utilitized for phishing scams targeting citizens, with necessary measures taken. In the past week alone, access to 165 million harmful internet addresses out of 402,979 was blocked, and 2,348 network attacks were reported to USOM and necessary measures were put in place. Uraloğlu concluded, “We cannot allow social media to become a threat zone for anyone.”

Stressing that some social media platforms are in a position of harming society, individuals, families, and children, he stated that these platforms have shifted from being a matter of freedom of expression to a negative realm where personal rights and privacy are violated.

Uraloğlu made it clear that they do not have a restrictive mindset about this issue but have always requested that social media platforms respect the laws of the Republic of Turkey. He concluded, “We cannot allow social media to become a threat zone for anyone.”