Turkish systems under attack. Is it information warfare?

Turkish systems are suffering a major cyber attack which is causing serious problems to organizations in the country. Is is an act of Information warfare?

On Thursday, the non-governmental organization Nic.tr that manages IP addresses assigned to Turkish websites (the “tr” domain) confirmed that the Turkish Internet servers are suffering a powerful cyber attack that appeared to be from threat actors outside the country.

The attack appears to be managed by an “organized sources” outside Turkey and it is slowing banking services in the country.

Experts working in the Banking industry confirmed that the attack has created serious problems to the many banks causing the disruption of transactions.

The “tr” domain is used by websites belonging to Turkish ministries, financial institutions, and commercial enterprises.

The Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed that a “serious” cyber attack hit the systems of the country.and asked an Ankara-based university to beef up security measures, saying they were “insufficient”.

Who is behind the attack?

Intelligence experts believe that Russian hackers linked to the Kremlin are targeting the Turkish systems in response to the tension between the countries. In the past, Russian nation-state actors targeted systems of other countries in response to the military tension with the Russian Government. Last digital retaliation occurred in the peninsula of the Crimea, the scene of clashes between militias Ukrainian and Russian

Some newspapers also reported that the attack could have originated in Russia in retaliation in response to the shot down of the Russian fighter jet last month on the Syrian border.

Turkish systems are also under attack by members of the Anonymous collective that is accusing the Government of Ankara for supporting “supporting the Islamic State by buying their oil and tending to their injured fighters.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Information Warfare, Turkish systems hacking)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.