Turkish banks and government offices at standstill in Anonymous-claimed attack

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Turkish banks and government offices at standstill in Anonymous-claimed attack

By Robert Hackwill

Banking systems and government offices were especially badly hit in a day of worsening cyber chaos in Turkey.

Since December 14 the government has been struggling with waves of hacks into its systems, and big business has suffered, too. Ministers say that for a moment there is only a limited amount of things they can do.

“It is hard to determine where these attacks are coming from, with detailed work it will be understood whether these attacks are carried out by hackers or by certain groups in a country,” said the Minister of Communications Binali Yildrim.

However the claims of international hacktivists Anonymous to be at war with Ankara for its alleged support of ISIL were reinforced with them claiming responsibility for the Christmas Day escalation.

Their capacities for launching cyberattacks is well-known, and Turks will be expecting action from their government to get things working again quickly.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-12-26

[Seastallion]

Howcome Anonymous couldn't do it to Thailand, as threatened?

Perhaps because the story was not true?

[ezzra]

That's the new world order we now live in that a pissy hacker sitting in a dark room thousands of miles away can wreck havoc and can bring a county's financial institutions to it's knees and a rag tag outfits of bearded goat herders are keeping the world in a grip of fear...

[trogers]

That's the new world order we now live in that a pissy hacker sitting in a dark room thousands of miles away can wreck havoc and can bring a county's financial institutions to it's knees and a rag tag outfits of bearded goat herders are keeping the world in a grip of fear...

What would be the outcome in a cashless society?

[bangkapi]

Coming soon to a country near you.

[bendejo]

It is god's will.

If the system was meant to function properly then it would be so.

[anon7867763]

Howcome Anonymous couldn't do it to Thailand, as threatened?

Perhaps because the story was not true?

They said they will if they introduce the single gateway so they havent done anything yet

[Publicus]

In cyberwarfare he who strikes first wins.

Mutually assured destruction applies to nuclear but not so much to cyberwar.

Take out energy infrastructure in a first strike and you lose communications, control, overall command of any response. Turkey in March suffered 40 million people without power for 12 hours after Iran did a cyberattack against it.

China and Russia have it as a top three priority. Iran is catching up. Daesh has the bucks to hire mercenary hackers as Iran did to better enable its attack. US in 2009 established a Cyberwarfare Command at the Pentagon.

China literally has regiments of cyber hackers as part of its war machine and Russia is a global centre for sophisticated cyber attacks. Disturbingly, Russia has also reduced its nuclear strike warning time from 24 hours to four minutes.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2015/05/19/turkish-blackout-sparks-fears-cyber-attack-on-west/#ixzz3vPATmBew

The Pentagon on Thursday took a major step designed to instill a measure of fear in potential cyberadversaries, releasing a new strategy that for the first time explicitly discusses the circumstances under which cyberweapons could be used against an attacker, and naming the countries it says present the greatest threat: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/politics/pentagon-announces-new-cyberwarfare-strategy.html?_r=0

[Publicus]

Turkey has always been a great Nato asset geostrategically but in cyberwarfare forget it. Turkey in cyber is, well, a turkey as is plainly evident.

Turkey's official internet server is run for the government by a university, which now is catching hell from the red-faced government.

Here btw is a fascinating ranking of countries known to have cyberwarfare capabilities.

Ranking: Best Cyberwarfare Technology and Military Applications

T = Technology able to penetrate defenses to acquire information; includes disabling systems in real or future time

M = Real Time Destructive Military Applications

1) USA T&M

2) China T

3) Russia M

4) UK T

5) Germany T

6) Israel T&M

7) Taiwan T

8) Australia T

9) North Korea M

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/20/17022378-expert-us-in-cyberwar-arms-race-with-china-russia

http://www.itproportal.com/2015/05/19/turkish-blackout-sparks-fears-cyber-attack-on-west/

Many recall the Stuxnet virus developed jointly by Israel and USA. Each government still plays dumb, but the Stuxnet virus was fed into Iran's nuclear centrifuges to melt down their program by a couple of years. Its twin, Flame, meanwhile gathered information and data pertaining to Stuxnet and beyond.

There are other countries with cyberwar capabilities. Some are first rate, such as Finland and Sweden. Others' capabilities aren't so great, such as India and Mexico. The nine listed here are the most significant countries.

Iran is currently developing its own cyberwar systems and programs full speed ahead.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Publicus

[JHolmesJr]

Anonymous = Russia.

[HenryB]

It seems to me the Russians are doing this and Turkey is blaming Anonymous

Maybe Anonymous is Russia, Israel China or USA

[NeverSure]

Hacking is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. It is the ultimate computer game. I took a couple of classes on it which were aimed at protecting against it. We got to make attempts on systems that were set up for us to attempt to breach. We were also shown how to build a DOS attack using unsuspecting computers. Lots of them.

If it were legal a person could get entirely addicted to it. I must admit that this Anonymous group is far above anything I know, but it's the "game" that's so much fun. I'll bet they are laughing their butts off when they break in.

Cheers.

[BuaBS]

When will hackers or "Anonymous" do something usefull like breaking in to the NSA and delete all their (our !) data & create havoc for those spies ?

But it's nice to hear they ( or the Ruskies) attacked the turkeys.

[JHolmesJr]

Erdogan has erred….he messed with the wrong kgb agent….this starts an era of misery for turkey…..bet Erdy is wishing he could get on a magic carpet and fly, fly away.

[Publicus]

It seems to me the Russians are doing this and Turkey is blaming Anonymous

Maybe Anonymous is Russia, Israel China or USA

Russia does of course come to mind immediately. In less than a blink.

It would not be a surprise to discover if it were Russia, but Russia is not Anonymous.

The rhetoric, justifications, targets of Anonymous over time would indicate the Russian government/military would not be involved in this. Experts have long said however that certain Russian cyber technology can sometimes be extremely difficult to track to identify.

Israel would not do this. Israel has nothing to gain from it in any respect. Israel and Turkey just last week agreed to restore diplomatic relations. Further, it would also reveal too much about its real time destructive cyber capabilities.

Chinese cyber technology is easy to trace and to identify. The CCP remains unable to hide its cyber technology fingerprint. Nor do the CCP have anything to gain from it.

(Israel can be easy to identify but only when it is deliberately selective, as in the Stuxnet virus which had ancient Jewish symbols for the ayatollahs to get presented with. PLA top-secret clandestine cyberwar Unit 61398 outside Shanghai gets visited each day by NSA which invites the spooked spooks to chat.)

The butler did it.

[Kangaloo]

It is god's will.

If the system was meant to function properly then it would be so.

God's will ???

I certainly hope you are being fecticious, otherwise I would think you live in fairy land

[Wilsonandson]

Anonymous = Russia.

Edward Snowden?

[GaryAdriaenssens]

First ERDOGAN talks someone out of committing suicide and later finds out that the Internet system has been hacked. What a day!!