Baku-APA. Three of Turkey's largest lenders are the latest targets of a week-long cyber-attack on the country's “.tr” domains, media outlets reported on Thursday, APA reports quoting Today's Zaman.
The websites of private banks İş Bankası and Garanti as well as the state-run Ziraat Bankası went partly offline on Thursday and banking operations via smartphone apps were not available, sources said. Others said that point of sale (POS) machines for these banks were also out of order on Thursday.
The banks were not immediately available for comment.
The reported malfunction in banking servers follows reports on Wednesday that since Dec. 14, Turkish Internet servers have suffered from one of the country's most intense cyber-attacks to date.
Over the weekend, hacking group Anonymous claimed responsibility for a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Turkish DNS servers under NIC.tr. Accusing the country's leaders of supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Anonymous also warned the Turkish government that if Turkey didn't stop “aiding” ISIL, the attacks would continue and target airports, banks, the government and military servers. “If you don't stop supporting ISIS [another acronym for ISIL], we will continue attacking your internet, your root DNS, your banks and take your government sites down. After the root DNS we will start to hit your airports, military assets and private state connections. We will destroy your critical banking infrastructure. Stop this insanity now Turkey. Your fate is in your own hands,” said Anonymous.
Turkish university under fire defends measures against cyber attack
The Ankara-based Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), which is responsible for operating the main Internet domain in the country, defended itself on Thursday from government criticism over its response to the cyber-attacks Turkey has been facing.
One of the most prestigious universities in the country, ODTÜ has attracted criticism from Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım on Wednesday regarding the intense cyber attack Turkey has been experiencing since last week. Turkish Internet servers continue to suffer from one of the country's most intense cyber attacks to date as a massive flood of traffic hit Turkish Internet servers handling nearly 400,000 websites, including those of government institutions, schools, municipalities, email servers and the military since Dec. 14. ODTÜ has drawn the minister's criticism for failing to take the necessary measures to prevent cyber attacks because it operates the main Internet domain in the country.
"ODTÜ is operating the Nic.tr domain but this is an issue of national security; necessary measures should have been taken against such attacks. … This attack has shown that ODTÜ has not taken the necessary measures. Such attacks are part of daily life; there could be an attack at any moment from anywhere. So we constantly need to take measures and keep our security level high. The matter is a serious one," Yıldırım said on Wednesday.
In response to the criticism, ODTÜ Rector Ahmet Acar said in a written statement that the university has taken the measures defined by universal standards in similar incidents. "We have faced one of the biggest cyber attacks the world has ever seen and our teams have quickly responded to the threats created by organized groups from outside Turkey," Acar said.
The minister also warned that a cyber war could lead to graver consequences than a real war because it happens suddenly and aims to paralyze life completely.
Nic.tr, a nongovernmental body operating under ODTÜ that administers addresses for websites using Turkey's official ".tr" domain, confirmed on Wednesday that intensified cyber attacks have been affecting Turkish servers since Monday. The disruptive traffic, known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks -- in which thousands of computers became specific Internet targets -- resulted in web speeds plummeting for some sites, Nic.tr said.
The minister also noted that the ministry wanted to transfer the operation of Nic.tr to the Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK), but ODTÜ objected to it and even filed a case against the ministry.
"We said, 'Let it stay there,' but we need to act together on measures. We should at least be able to cooperate in cases of such attacks," he said
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