TR-CERT

TR-CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish: Ulusal Siber Olaylara Müdahale Merkezi (USOM)) is an organization within the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) which is the national regulatory authority of the Turkish electronic communication sector. It is responsible for the analysis and risk mitigation of large-scale cyber threats and vulnerabilities, communicating information regarding malicious cyber activities or possible vulnerabilities to computer security incident response teams (CSIRT) and the public. TR-CERT was established on 27 May 2013 within the ICTA, in accordance with the 4. clause "National Cybersecurity Strategy and 2013-2014 Action Plan" (Turkish: Ulusal Siber Güvenlik Stratejisi ve 2013-2014 Eylem Planı) issued by the Cabinet of Turkey and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey. The mission of TR-CERT is to protect the Turkish government's and its citizens' cyberspace, taking measures for the protection of critical infrastructures, both public and private, such as energy production and distribution, water management, and telecommunication institutions and facilities in Turkey. TR-CERT also takes both proactive and reactive actions toward cyber incidents that would affect the country as a whole, such as botnets, malware, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. There are over 1300 CSIRTs and over 4000 cyber security professionals in nearly every sector in Turkey that coordinate with TR-CERT regarding cyber incidents. These CSIRTs are mostly institutional CSIRTs (such as the CSIRT of a bank), but there are also industry-specific CSIRTs that coordinate with TR-CERT (such as the CSIRT of the finance industry). The Cyber Star (Turkish: Siber Yıldız), a 24-hour online capture-the-flag cybersecurity competition organized by TR-CERT, had over 20,000 contestants working either in teams or individually, during the latest competition held in February 2019. In the previous Cyber Star event held in January 2017, TR-CERT had nearly 15,000 contestants and some of the most successful contestants were hired by TR-CERT later on. In December 2019, TR-CERT organized the "Cyber Shield 2019", an international cybersecurity exercise with simulated cyber attacks, malware, phishing, and industrial control systems (ICS).