Governing Turkey's Internet: Cyber Security as a Strategy of Power

2020

Information communication technologies exhibit a continuous and rapid development. This rapid change has gained more momentum in recent years. Therefore, new concepts such as cyber space that were accepted as utopian in the past have entered our lives. Today, it has become a concept that is in the center of our lives. As a matter of fact, this concept caused the distance between continents to become meaningless. Moreover, it has made serious contributions to globalization. With the increase in the current functions and size of the cyber space, this area has become more fragile and vulnerable. Therefore, it causes both the cyber space to be exposed to various attacks and the people using this cyber space to commit crimes in the classical sense more easily. However, with the transfer of both private and public institutions' services to electronic media, individuals have become dependent on these technologies both in their private and working lives. As a matter of fact, malicious individuals, groups or hostile countries who want to take advantage of this addiction engage in activities to abuse these cyber spaces. In this study, the United States, Britain and Turkey's national cyber security policies are attempting to perform a comparative analysis. A set of criteria developed by various international organizations regarding cyber security policies or strategies are grouped more comprehensively and systematically within the scope of this study. All political and strategic approaches of countries towards cyber security are analyzed with six basic comparison criteria. Based on the results of comparisons it has been made in a variety of implications for Turkey's cyber security policy. However, due to the nature of cyber security and the continuous change in cyber attack and cybercrime techniques; It is very difficult to predict whether the proposed policy implications will be decisive. Indeed inferences to be made for Turkey Turkey's social, cultural and legal structure has been tried to be respected. Considering all these criteria, it has been tried to determine the policies of a management structure based on effective communication between institutions in order to provide effective cyber security. It can be argued that the findings have very important implications for policy makers, public and private institution managers.

Cybersecurity and Law, 2024

The Internet and cyberspace are a gradually developing structure. Every second, new devices, systems and users connect within the network, which causes constant growth and changes in the sphere of threats arising from cyberspace. Türkiye is one of the countries in the world most exposed to cyber threats. However, one of its goals was to bring the field of cybersecurity to an international level. The aim of this article is to present the framework of Türkiye's cybersecurity policy and answer the following questions: What steps have been taken in Türkiye to protect the state and society against the effects of threats in cyberspace? In which areas has Türkiye achieved significant progress in cyberspace protection, and which are still the biggest challenges?

Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication, 2020

Since cyber-attacks involve a wide range of actions, they are subject to various definitions and classification. As some of the attacks cover stealing data and information, some of them prevent the whole system from working. Some attacks are connected to political conflicts while others are caused by economic or social tensions. Due to the developments in new communication technologies, the espionage activities which were held by the governments previously have been also occurring in civil organizations. Espionage activities for political reasons as well as economic motivations can cause big damage. The fact that individuals and organizations do not take the necessary measures makes them easily the target of these attacks. While the problem is analyzing with a holistic approach, the need to examine the relations between institutions, social relations, information and hegemony from a moral point of view due to the concentration of constantly changing and developing technology on cert...

Considering the criticality of the cyber security threat in the 21st century, it is presumed that the nations are busy with series of activities in order to protect their security in the cyber space domain. In this paper, in light of the recent developments in the cyber security field, Turkey's cyber security analysis is performed using a macro analysis model. We researched for the measures taken in Turkey with respect to those in the other countries, reviewed the posture, the activities and actions taken in the last ten years and provided recommendations deemed necessary to enhance national cyber security. The paper aims to contribute to the cyber security literature on governance issues as well as to national security preparations. It needs to be emphasized that the views contained in this paper belong to the authors and do not reflect any official view of the respective institutions.

The marriage of computers and telecommunications, the integration of these technologies into a multimedia system of communication that has global reach, and the fact that they are available worldwide at low cost seems to be bringing about a fundamental transformation in the way humans communicate and interact. But however much consensus there may be on the growing importance of information technology today, agreement is far more elusive when it comes to pinning down the impact of this development on security issues.This volume focuses on the role of the state in defending against cyber-threats and in securing the information age. The notion that is most uncritically accepted within the overall information security debate is that state power is eroding due to the effects of information and communication technology and that the state is unable to provide security in the information age. This volume challenges the unidimensionality of this statement. Without denying that new challenges for the state have arisen, authors in this volume argue that too much credence is often given to the spectre of an erosion of sovereignty.Written by scholars in international relations, the manuscript is captivating with the significance and actuality of the issues discussed, and the logical, knowledgeable, and engaged manner of presenting the issues. The essays intrigue and provoke with a number of "fresh" hypotheses, observations, and suggestions and contribute to mapping the diverse layers, actors, approaches, and policies of the cybersecurity realm.

International Journal of Social Inquiry, 2019

The term of security, has been consistently discussed as a case of human beings until today. Especially with the formation of nation-state structures, the concept of security has undergone a constant change.At the same time, the issue of security is one of the main factors determining the international relations. Especially in the post-Cold War period, the concept of "threat" became more important than the concept of the enemy.In today's popular issues, * This article is produced from the unpublished PhD thesis titled "The Changing Security Perception in the Globalization Scenario: Case of Cybersecurity" in the International Relations Department of the Institute of Social Sciences. And also paper has been accepted for an oral presentation at the Turkish Foreign Policy and International Relations Congress on 15-17 November 2018.

"The so-called cyber-threat commands the attention of multinational corporations, governments and the strategic community, keen as they are to harness the power of digital communications yet anxious to protect their interests. Attacks such as those which disrupted on-line banking in Estonia and defaced government websites in Georgia, as well as the infamous Stuxnet worm that temporarily shut down Iran’s nuclear programme, are vivid examples of what may be possible within this new strategic domain. But are our networked societies really vulnerable, as some have suggested, to a knock-out blow, perpetrated by state-sponsored hackers or terrorists? And what can be done to defend the state from this and from the encroachment of external networks that transcend its borders and breach its laws? This Adelphi tackles the range of issues raised by our dependence on digital networks. It considers how instantaneous, global communications are challenging national and social orders and what shape those challenges may take as the net is cast ever wider. Comparing the transformations of the Information Age with those of previous generations, when new technologies and emerging transnational threats spread panic in political and strategic circles, the authors examine the real implications for states and statehood."

Observatorio (OBS*), 2010

It is of common understanding that ICTs play a vital role in the social, political and economic development of every country. But every country does not welcome this technology without struggles. This study looks into the particular case of Turkey. As a semi-periphery country Turkey has been in a unique position, not only geographically and economically, but also politically and culturally. As a country with a predominantly Muslim population Turkey, considered by many as the only Muslim democracy, also has aspirations to become a member of the European Union (EU). A former study by this Author analyzed the period of 1997-2004 of Internet policy development in Turkey as it unfolded within the context of then current debates regarding globalization forces and the nation-state. This paper picks up where the old one left off, and looks into the most recent influences incorporated in the patterning of Internet development in Turkey. Turkey's Internet journey, the initiatives relative to the expansion of the Internet in comparison to attempts to control and regulate Internet content does not only demonstrate how adopting the Internet has been a double-edged sword for some countries but could also on a larger scale offer insight to the discussion on the compatibility of Islam and the Western definition of democracy.

With the increase of mobile devices and the implementation of the concept of “internet of things”, human beings began to live entirely in a cyberworld besides physical world. This unexpected expansion of cyberspace has caused a vulnerability to all kinds of cyber-attacks. Today, the number of attackers and correspondingly the number of attacks are increasing, but the attackers’ knowledge levels are diminishing. This inverse ratio in cyber threats force organizations and states to take more comprehensive security measures. Developed countries have begun to accept cyber space as a fifth operational domain after land, sea, air and space. The study reveals that designing cyber security agency for Turkey is a crucial issue in terms of cyber defense in depth for an effective homeland cyber security. In this paper, we suggest eight layered “defense in depth architecture” that is proposed “cyber security agency organization” for Turkey. We believe this structure provide more effective real-time information sharing between governmental organizations also.