Turkey’s cyber defense plan to be ready in 2013

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Government institutions will have to take their own precautions to stop virtual attacks under his ministry’s supervision, says Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım. DHA photo

Turkey’s cyber security strategic plan will be ready by next year and will be very comprehensive, Transportation and Communication Minister Binali Yıldırım told CNNTürk in an interview yesterday.

“A coordination group has been formed under my ministry. We will first establish a Strategic Plan and will draft a Cyber Security Strategy which outlines the measures state institutions will need to take,” Yıldırım said.

Turkey, a NATO member, which has been subjected to a growing number of cyber attacks recently, has sped up its work to improve the firewalls protecting the country against virtual attacks. The issue is also on NATO’s agenda, with the organization describing cyber attacks as presenting a growing danger to world security.

Under Yıldırım’s ministry, the Information and Communications Authority (BTK) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) are working to draft the strategic plan. “Government institutions will have to take their own precautions to stop virtual attacks, but we will oversee the coordination among them,” Yıldırım said. He also recalled that earlier efforts to increase cyber security had good results, drastically reducing the amount of spam email sent from Turkey.

With the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime by Parliament, Yıldırım said Turkey would be able to better coordinate with the other 46 CoE countries against cyber-crime attacks.
“Currently, we cannot take any action against cyber attacks perpetrated from a third country. Under the convention, we will be able to cooperate with [CoE] countries where attacks originate,” he said.

No more waiting on board

Because the operations of Turkish Airlines (THY) and other companies lie under the purview of his ministry, Yıldırım was also questioned about the increasing delays and hours-long waiting periods on board the planes.

“We will take measures against the companies to deal with the long waiting periods,” he said. “We will require that the time spent waiting for a flight cannot be more than half of the total flight time.” k HDN