The 2-day National Cyber Shield Exercise has started. Emphasizing that cyber security is now a national security issue, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu said, “Within the scope of the National Cyber Shield Exercise 2021; Cyber security teams from 36 different institutions and organizations from health to education, energy to banking, broadcasting to water management and 135 cyber security experts in these teams will have the opportunity to test their knowledge and skills.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu spoke at the National Cyber Shield Exercise. Karaismailoğlu stated that with the innovations of advancing technology, a highly developed phase of the communication and information age has been experienced, “Now, concepts such as far-close, known-unknown have become meaningless, borders have become transparent, and obstacles to mutual interaction have largely been removed. Thanks to the opportunities offered by our country's strong informatics and communication infrastructure; We aim to offer solutions that emerge at the intersection of the transportation sector and information and communication technologies to the service of our citizens.”
INVESTMENT MADE FOR COMMUNICATIONS 92 BILLION TL
Noting that the development in the communication and informatics sector has gained great momentum with the work of the AK Party governments in the last 19 years under the leadership of President Erdogan, Karaismailoğlu continued as follows:
“The amount of investment we made for communication between 2003 and 2021 reached 92 billion liras. The number of authorizations in our electronic communications sector, which was 2003 in 126, increased to 2021 in the second quarter of 2. While the size of the IT sector in our country was 806 billion TL in 2003; In 21, it increased to 2020 billion TL. In the last year alone, the growth rate of our industry has reached 189 percent. While our broadband internet subscribers were 24 million in the first half of 2020, it increased by 78 percent in the first half of this year. Thus, it reached 9,3 million. Our number of inter-machine communication subscribers; In 86, it was 2011 million 1 thousand. Today that number has increased to 56 million. Thanks to the infrastructure of our country, which we have strengthened with these investments, service continuity has been ensured in all sectors during the Kovid-7 outbreak.”
BROADBAND INTERNET USE INCREASE 77 PERCENT DURING THE EPIDEMIC
Emphasizing that the need for internet has increased significantly during the epidemic process, Minister of Transport Karaismailoğlu said that the monthly fixed broadband internet use, which was 2019 GigaByte in the last quarter of 119, increased to 2021 GigaByte with an increase of 77 percent in the second quarter of 211. Emphasizing that the use of mobile broadband increased by 45 percent from 7,2 GigaByte to 10,5 GigaByte per month, Karaismailoğlu said, “Despite the difficult pandemic period that shook the world's giant economies, the total investment amount of Turkey's Telecom and mobile operators increased by 27,3 percent compared to the previous year. With an increase of 2020 percent, it amounted to approximately 13 billion TL in XNUMX. As the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, you can be sure that we will pave the way for these investments and continue to accelerate.”
THE COST OF LOSSES FROM CYBER ATTACKS WILL AMOUNT TO $6 TRILLION WORLDWIDE
Underlining that they strongly support R&D investments and innovation, Karaismailoğlu made the following assessments:
“Thus, we aim to sustain the development of our country, to raise social knowledge and awareness, and to present an effective and efficient public administration to our nation. We have never considered the development of communication infrastructure and services alone sufficient. The important thing was that these services spread to our geography at the speed they developed and that all our citizens could benefit. With this understanding, we will continue to work as the Ministry to provide safe, quality, uninterrupted services to our nation at affordable costs. However, it is obvious that the use of information and communication technologies has positive aspects as well as various cyber threats. Cyber security is one of the most important agenda items not only for individuals, but also for companies and international organizations. Even insurance companies have started to launch products for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is now a national security issue. According to international research, it is predicted that the cost of losses from cyber attacks will reach $ 2021 trillion worldwide in 6.”
WE TAKE SERIOUS MEASURES IN CYBER SECURITY
Stating that ensuring national cyber security is the priority agenda of everyone, Karaismailoğlu said, "By cyber attacks, a computer user's bank account information can be obtained, as well as accessing a country's military and political secrets, making airports, financial centers, power plants, transportation and communication systems and hospitals inoperable. possible. For this reason, we are taking and implementing very serious measures regarding cyber security.
NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY STRATEGY AND ACTION PLANS IMPLEMENTED
Saying, "As the Ministry, it is our priority to develop proactive solutions and take measures to prevent cyber attacks that our citizens may be exposed to," Minister of Transport Adil Karaismailoğlu reminded that the National Cyber Security Strategy and Action Plans have been implemented.
Karaismailoğlu, in the strategy document covering the period of 2020-2023; He said that the objectives of protecting critical infrastructures, developing national capacity, combating cybercrime, using new generation technologies safely, ensuring the integration of cyber security with national security and developing international cooperation are included. Explaining that the operational efforts to prevent cyber attacks and provide deterrence are carried out by the National Cyber Incidents Response Center (USOM), which operates within the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK), Karaismailoğlu continued as follows:
“USOM, to improve the understanding of cyber security throughout the country and to prevent cyber threats; It continues its activities in order to generate alarms, issue warnings and announcements, take control of the incident with on-site response teams in critical situations, and provide national coordination in responding to cyber incidents. Under the coordination of USOM, which is in our cyber security ecosystem, sectoral and Institutional SOMEs in 916 institutions and organizations are working towards the protection of our country's cyberspace. In cyberspace, as you know, there is no sharply demarcated area between countries. For this reason, we care about and develop information sharing and effective cooperation with international stakeholders. We participate and contribute to the policy and strategy-making activities of international organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, OSCE, G20, OECD, Turkic Council and D8.”
IT IS IMPORTANT TO PRODUCE DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL SOFTWARE
By the Ministry and BTK; Noting that they have implemented bilateral cooperation with many countries with memorandums of understanding on cyber security, Minister of Transport, Karaismailoğlu, drew attention to the importance of producing domestic and national software at this point.
Emphasizing that the cyber security of critical infrastructures should be protected 7/24, Karaismailoğlu said, “We will not entrust this to foreign software. We have also implemented very important projects in this regard. We have prevented hundreds of thousands of attacks targeting Turkey in the last 4 years with the KASIRGA, AVCI and AZAD applications, which we have developed entirely with domestic and national resources. The development of domestic and national software in the field of cyber security is indispensable for us. We have to have the latest technological opportunities in the field of cyber security,” he said.
Karaismailoğlu said, “It is about transitioning to 5G with network products produced with domestic and national facilities,” and stated that the domestic production potential in Turkey has been activated with studies such as the Communication Technologies Cluster established for 5G and the 5G Valley Open Test Field.
5G EXPECTED TO CREATE 2035 MILLION JOBS BY 23
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Karaismailoğlu said, “The project will be a tool not only for product development, but also for us to launch world brands. We continue our investments to increase the prevalence of fiber infrastructure, which is critical for 2035G, which is expected to contribute 4 trillion dollars to the world economy and create 23 million jobs by 5. For this, we take the opinions of operators, manufacturers and other sector stakeholders. We have to increase the competencies of the cyber incident response teams by continuing our support for the development and production of domestic and national hardware and software that will meet the needs of the sector in the field of cyber security.
CYBERHIRATS AND EXPERTS WILL FIND SPECIALISTS AGAINST
Considering that the response to cyber incidents is a whole covering before, during and after the incident; Noting that they will continue to develop their proactive cyber defense approach, Karaismailoğlu gave the following information about the exercise:
“With this exercise, we aim to improve the ability of our participating institutions to counter cyber attacks, improve their internal and inter-agency coordination, and increase their level of preparedness. In this process, our institutions will experience the current cyber security risks and impacts and become a part of national cooperation in the prevention of cyber threats. Also; We also aim to contribute to their future work by enabling them to see their deficiencies in the simulation environment. Our national cyber security exercises are also a valuable platform for sharing experiences between our institutions. Within the scope of the National Cyber Shield Exercise 2021; From health to education, from energy to banking, from publishing to water management, cyber security teams from 36 different institutions and organizations and 135 cyber security experts in these teams will have the opportunity to test their knowledge and skills. As a result of these exercises, we; cyber hackers and terrorists will find expert professionals in front of them. Thanks to the cyber experts we have trained; If there are, we will close our gaps and find the methods to eliminate the attacks in the most effective way. Our drill, the technical infrastructure of which was completely developed by USOM, consists of different scenarios including the most common types of cyber attacks, realistic threats and the most up-to-date threat vectors.”