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Turkey to build "cyber army" to strengthen national security

Xinhua, May 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

Turkey will establish a special army against possible cyber attacks, Turkish Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan said on Thursday.

To strengthen the national cyber security structure, Turkish government is building a cyber army of five groups now, and some 13,000 white-hat hackers (online security guards) have come to work in the public sector, Arslan told local daily Hurriyet.

Arslan also said the recent WannaCry ransomware attack failed to harm Turkey thanks to a warning sent to all institutions and organizations to keep main databases closed as the hackers were seeking ransom payments for the data they encrypted.

"However, they may pose a bigger threat and danger in the following days. That's why we are strengthening the structure all the time," the minister noted.

The Turkish government has launched a national action plan as a cyber security strategy to improve its national firewall against attacks, especially after the July 2016 failed coup attempt. Endit