At the Cybersecurity Event organized by Sentez Media, cybersecurity and new satellite technologies were discussed.
The Locard International Cybersecurity Event was hosted by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK). The program was attended by Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, public and sector representatives.
In his opening speech, BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu stated, "From the beginning of human history to the present day, the ongoing change, transformation, and development have reached a dizzying speed in recent years. Although there are many reasons behind this great and rapid change, the most important of these reasons is undoubtedly the rapid developments in information and communication technologies. The discovery and widespread use of the internet, the launch of commercial satellites, the rapid development of mobile technologies, and the rapid increase in personal computer ownership worldwide have initiated a communication revolution. This revolution has affected every area of life, including science, art, literature, social communication, politics, entertainment, and commerce, leading to economic, political, social, and cultural transformations on a global scale. Developing information and communication technologies bring new opportunities and possibilities for individuals, institutions, and states in commercial, economic, and social life. We see the use of information and communication technologies in almost every field, from e-government applications to finance and banking applications, from electronic commerce to digital media, from wearable technologies to robotic systems, from social media to virtual reality."
President Karagözoğlu: Cybersecurity is a Critical Element
Expressing that while experiencing digital transformation on one hand, cybersecurity emerges as a critical element accordingly, Karagözoğlu said, "We know that cyber threats and attacks are increasing day by day. This situation requires organizations exposed to increasingly developing threats and attacks to address their cybersecurity strategies as a vital issue and to invest more than ever in solutions for this purpose. Ensuring the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures, which are vital for facilitating the social and economic life of countries and societies, has become a necessity just like their physical security. Because when the confidentiality, integrity, or accessibility of the processed information in critical infrastructures is compromised, it can lead to large-scale economic damage, national security vulnerabilities, disruption of public order, and even loss of life. Since an outage in critical infrastructures can create traumas nationwide, major hacker groups, terrorist organizations, and even special units established by states are conducting various studies. We must learn from these experienced examples, establish strong infrastructures with ensured cybersecurity for a strong Turkey, and remain constantly vigilant."
Emphasizing that we cannot be sure of the security of any critical infrastructure component whose source codes we do not possess or which we do not produce domestically, Karagözoğlu said, "We know that cybersecurity is a topic that all countries in the world focus on intensively both in terms of national security and providing secure services to consumers. Of the 101 action steps listed in the EU's Digital Agenda targeting 2020, 14 are related to security. Among these, we can list activities such as establishing a strong information security policy, establishing a European cybercrime platform, expanding regulations, reporting illegal internet content, establishing Cyber Incident Response Teams, and conducting cyber attack drills in member states. Indeed, in our country as well, we have intensified similar activities to those in the EU Digital Agenda in recent years. One of the important steps we have taken to ensure cybersecurity in our country is the establishment of the National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM) under BTK in line with the Cybersecurity Board Decision."
President Karagözoğlu listed the duties of USOM as "Protecting critical infrastructures, preventing threats related to cybersecurity, and effectively and instantly intervening in the event of any cyber incident," and added: "Additionally, this center ensures communication and coordination between internet actors, law enforcement, international organizations, research centers, and the private sector. It is also an important step to make it mandatory to establish 'Sectoral SOME' (Cyber Incident Response Teams) within the regulatory and supervisory authority of the sector or the ministry to which the sector is affiliated in critical sectors. These established sectoral SOMEs are directly connected to USOM established under BTK and continue their work to take necessary measures regarding cyber incidents. Another activity related to this topic is the cybersecurity drills conducted under the coordination of our Institution with the support of our Ministry. Three national and one international cyber drills have been conducted in our country so far for the purposes of developing expertise levels, applying information security standards, raising user awareness, and increasing awareness on cybersecurity. As a result of our intensive work on cybersecurity, USOM has increasingly become a brand and continues to perform important functions for the development of our country's cybersecurity ecosystem. In this context, we are allocating more resources to USOM and striving to advance the work done in the past."
President Karagözoğlu: Domestic and National Production is Important in Cybersecurity
Emphasizing the importance of domestic and national production in ensuring our national cybersecurity as in every field related to national security, Karagözoğlu said, "In this context, in the projects we conduct under USOM for combating threats, we use applications called KASIRGA, AVCI, and AZAD, which we have developed entirely with our own resources and are based on machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. These applications are actively used in detecting malicious software command servers, compromised systems, and systems infected with malicious software, and continue to be developed to perform more sophisticated analyses. As a result of these efforts, foreign-sourced BotNet command and control servers targeting individuals and institutions in our country have been detected and blocked. Similarly, information of mobile phone owners infected with malicious software has been obtained from cyber attackers' command and control servers, shared with banks through BDDK for the identification of relevant persons, preventing victimization. It is clear that one of the most important resources for ensuring national cybersecurity is qualified human resources. In this context, we must take the necessary steps quickly and train qualified experts to close the cybersecurity expert gap in our country. As BTK-USOM, we are also conducting important studies on this matter and contributing to meeting the need for cybersecurity experts in our country."
President Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by saying, "The SİBER YILDIZ competition we organized, trainings for SOMEs from various critical sectors such as health and energy, periodic consultation meetings conducted to increase USOM-SOME coordination are among the studies we have done in this sense. Studies to increase activities such as cybersecurity drills and competitions for training expert personnel in the field of cybersecurity, sector-specific trainings are being continued within our Institution. In this context, our practical cybersecurity training laboratory has been established under the FETİH project, and this laboratory provides participants with the opportunity to conduct one-on-one cybersecurity tests and develop themselves in this field."
Deputy Minister Sayan: Information Technologies are the Locomotive of Development in All Sectors
Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, also spoke at the program. Reminding that information and communication technologies, which are developing at a dizzying speed, bring new opportunities and possibilities for individuals, institutions, and states in commercial, economic, and social life, Sayan said, "We see that information technologies are the locomotive for the development of all sectors. Societies and countries that understand this period, also called Industry 4.0, well and take a pioneering role will increase their economic and social welfare levels on one hand and reach the position of leading countries that shape developments in the world on the other. In this respect, as Turkey, we need to continue our efforts to enter among the countries that shape developments, not just follow them, in line with the 2023 targets set by our President. We are facing a new production revolution, and as you know, its name is 'Industry 4.0'. This period will be shaped by the automation within technologies such as smart robots, big data, Internet of Things, 3D printing, cloud computing, and their integration with each other, and information and communication technologies (ICT) will guide the industry to an unprecedented extent."
Stating that Artificial Intelligence technologies, which have gained new capabilities especially with the opportunities brought by big data, will bring groundbreaking innovations in many sectors in the coming years, Sayan said, "In essence, we will all witness the transformation of data, the mine of Industry 4.0, into information that replaces gold, diamonds, rubies, or emeralds through artificial intelligence applications and technologies. The effective use, production, and infrastructure establishment of information and technology undoubtedly make ensuring the security of this data mandatory. As technology and services increase and are used intensively, they also bring certain problems, primarily cybersecurity, and become targets for attackers. Indeed, we see increasingly intense and complex attacks emerging, especially on critical infrastructures such as energy, health, finance, banking, and national defense systems. For this reason, we say that cybersecurity has now become an important and inseparable part of national security."
Deputy Minister Sayan: Reaching the Right Information is Very Important in Cybersecurity
Touching on BTK's areas of work, Sayan said, "As BTK, under the cybersecurity organization established in 2013, duties related to cybersecurity continue to be fulfilled at the best level with an increasing momentum. As a result of these efforts, USOM is increasingly becoming a brand and continues to perform important functions for the development of our country's cybersecurity ecosystem. Undoubtedly, when cybersecurity is concerned, reaching the right information and sharing this information with the right person or institution at the right time and place is of great importance. In this respect, ensuring national coordination and cooperation among stakeholders, as well as establishing and developing international collaborations, is an indispensable part of the fight against cyber threats.
Drawing attention to the fact that processing and providing critical infrastructure and services effectively and efficiently, ensuring service continuity, and enabling individuals to continue their daily lives securely hold a very important place in social, economic, and financial development with the newest and most advanced technologies and infrastructures, Sayan stated in his speech lastly, "Of course, it is not possible to think of all these processes separately from cybersecurity. In this respect, it is necessary to adopt a holistic cybersecurity approach in the development of each service or system from the planning stage to the delivery stage."