I have shared in my previous article that the dizzying development in Information Technology has led to a number of complications that make our life more difficult for “Information Security”. Personal, sectoral, commercial, national and, in fact, a global sense of information security requirements renew themselves every day.

What is happening in Turkey while something new is being done every minute for information security all over the world?

In fact, the answer to this question is rather complicated not only for our country, but for all countries and even for communities like the EU and NATO. First of all, it is worth mentioning that we can see Cyber Security as the flagship of information security. In particular, the precautions to be taken in communication security are the first ring of the chain. The ministry responsible for this issue in Turkey is the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications. With the amendment made in 2008 also received the new name the chief actor of the process is Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK). It is working on information technologies at regional, national and international level. Monitoring the communication made up of all the communication channels including internet until the 15th of July was carried out by the Telecommunication Communication Presidency (TİB), a sub-unit of the Institution (BTK), after which the authorities of the abandoned unit were gathered in the BTK.

Have a central Information Security structure been established with BTK?

Clearly no! In fact, the idea and work of establishing a National Information Security Organization, which has a comprehensive and authoritarian nature, has existed for many years in different periods. The team, which I had been working for on behalf of TUBITAK-UEKAE and which is hosted by the General Secretariat of the National Security Council, consist of Prime Ministry, the Ministry of National Defense and other relevant ministries, the Undersecretariat of National Intelligence Agency, the General Staff and the General Directorate of Power Commands worked for long days of shift for the establishment of this organization and the related laws. The current state of the draft of the proposed law, which is being developed every year, is a partly became reality as the decision of Council of Ministers’ on the “Implementation, Management and Coordination of the Workshops on National Cyber Security. As a concrete organization, we can give the National Cybercrime Intervention Center (USOM) as the example, which has undertaken the task of detecting and threatening the cyber threats that our country might be exposed to, conducting activities and informing relevant places.

Despite a central restructuring effort on National Information Security, our country has a balance formed by the support from the ministries, the General Staff and the Force Commands, the General Directorate of Security, TUBITAK and some other Public Institutions and even the banks.

Electronic signature and electronic certificate usage is spreading rapidly in our country as it is in developed countries in order to use internet in the public works more securely, which is the most important instrument of the age.

It is very clear that measures to take, planned measures, laws, drafts of laws, agencies, committees will be in an ever-changing regeneration process every passing day. However, the fact that personal information of nearly 50 million citizens has been stolen and published on the internet in the very recent past is the most concrete indication that we should take more serious steps in this dynamic process …

This article was published in periodical “Science and Technology to Everybody (Herkese Bilim Teknoloji)”, October 7, 2016