Cyber-intruders Target Turkish Government Websites

Recently, Turkish government websites suffered another wave of cyber-attacks from Anonymous, a self-proclaimed Internet Vigilante group. Last month, several Turkish websites faced distributed denial-of-service attacks, just few days prior to the legislative election in protest against Internet filtering rules. Turkish counter crime agencies then acted swiftly and arrested over 30 people for their alleged association with Anonymous, and attack on government websites. The latest attack by Anonymous protests against the filtering scheme, which will come into effect from next month. The scheme will have four levels of filtering for internet users - family, children, domestic and standard. The cyber-attack group has reportedly released data pertaining to 100 websites. The group has also claimed to have defaced around 74 websites by posting company Logo and some messages.

Anonymous has named the latest attack as 'Turkish Takedown Thursday' and described it as part of the AntiSec movement launched to target corrupt governments, business corporations and banking and finance organizations. The movement was initially launched by the now defunct Lulz Sec group, in association with Anonymous. Several members of Lulz Sec have now reportedly joined Anonymous and other cyber-attack groups. Recently, other groups such as Team Inj3ct0r and F1Esc also carried out attacks under the AntiSec banner and released data pertaining to NATO, Spanish Defense Ministry and Australian Elections. The latest attack comes just days after Italian counter crime agencies reportedly arrested 15 people charging them for involvement in attacks carried out by the Anonymous group.

Anonymous has allegedly vowed to initiate revenge attacks against Italian counter crime agencies in response to the latest arrests. Anonymous earlier launched attacks on Spanish Police, after arrest of three members of the group. Anonymous is a loosely knitted association of attackers, who have continued to launch attacks against various targets, even after several arrests across different countries. On the other hand rival attack groups such as TeaMp0isoN exposed the personal details of some of the members of rival groups including a prominent member of the now defunct Lulz Sec.

Frequent cyber-attacks have raised concerns among law makers, businesses organizations and individuals. The flood of attacks threatens to destabilize and disrupt both government and business activities. Cyber security professionals are working tirelessly to strengthen the defenses of organizations against cyber-attacks. Security certifications and online technology degree programs may help professionals in improving their capabilities and combat the growing IT security challenges.

Organizations must conduct in-depth appraisal of the IT infrastructure through penetration testers and assess the potential security threats through professionals qualified in IT masters degree and masters of security science to streamline the security of the organizational networks and computer systems. Lack of awareness and negligence are one of the major causes for security and data breach incidents. Selection of weak passwords, not securing login credentials, inadequate firewall protection and lack of regular software updates make organizations vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Organizations can create security awareness among employees through training programs, workshops and e-learning programs. They can also collaborate with Universities and encourage employees to undertake online computer degree programs.