Saturday, July 19, 2025
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
  • About Us

Russia targeted Turkey with offensive cyber operations

December 23, 2019
A A
Russia targeted Turkey with offensive cyber operations
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Abdullah Bozkurt

 

Turkey was concerned that offensive Russian cyber operations in Syria were targeting Turkish entities and interests and sounded alarm bells that infiltration and hacking attempts might be launched, a classified internal memo from 2016 has shown.

According to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Nordic Monitor, the Russian cyber operations were pursued through a group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 28 (APT28), which was set up in 2007 under the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). APT28 was also alleged to have been a branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB), but no mention of that was made in the memo.

It warned that Russia had used its cyber capabilities in earlier conflicts such as Georgia, Ukraine and South Ossetia and would also want to exploit the cyber domain in Syria to achieve geopolitical objectives.

APT28 not only conducts cyber espionage and steals data but also attempts to influence the flow of information about the conflict, the note underlined, adding that Russian hacker groups other than APT28 had already carried out a series of attacks against Turkish government entities, private industry, aid groups and human rights organizations.

 

The internal memo:

 

According to the assessment, Russia would first gain a foothold in the target networks, followed by other actions such as using malware to erase, modify or damage data to propagate disinformation and misinformation from official accounts and exploiting vulnerabilities gleaned from contact books and mailing lists of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to gather more highly sensitive intelligence.

The assessment was made by the General Staff’s Combat Electronic Information Systems (MEBS) unit and was based on available intelligence including from the NATO sources. it was believed that Russia had in fact targeted Turkey in particular since Turkey had shot down a Russian jet that was in violation of Turkish airspace in November 2015. The Turkish military concluded that Russia was already behind in a series of recent attacks on Internet infrastructure, the finance industry and the health sector in Turkey.

An attempt to take down the Turkish General Staff’s website on November 26, 2015 was also blamed on Russia. No data loss or service interruption was recorded during the attack, the memo noted. Typically, network or systems administrators who experience data loss may want to utilize NetApp data recovery services in order to restore the data back to its former condition.

According to Turkish military assessment, the intranet system (TSK-?ç NET) is safe from hacking attempts as it is not connected to the Internet. However, the Turkish military Internet system (TSK-D?? NET), which registers secret communications, may be open to Russian cyber attacks, the note warned, saying that necessary precautions were being taken on a 24-hour basis to prevent any infiltration.

The memo was submitted to the General Staff on May 27, 2016 by Col. Can Sert, the director of the Cyber Event Center (Siber Olay Merkezi).

 

 

Scenes from Turkish Military Communication works

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Full text of new Turkey, Libya sweeping security, military cooperation deal revealed

Next Post

Turkey’s military cozied up to Iran following purge of pro-NATO officers

Abdullah Bozkurt

Abdullah Bozkurt

[email protected]

Next Post
Turkey’s military cozied up to Iran following purge of pro-NATO officers

Turkey’s military cozied up to Iran following purge of pro-NATO officers

Please login to join discussion
UAE and Turkey agree to protect data in secret defense projects

UAE and Turkey agree to protect data in secret defense projects

July 18, 2025
Secret documents reveal abuse of Interpol mechanisms by Turkish government

Turkey secretly plots to bypass INTERPOL rules to target exiled journalist in Sweden

July 17, 2025
UN working group declares 2016 coup allegations baseless, undermining Erdogan’s narrative

Erdogan gov’t accused of hiding a coup report to cover up evidence of false flag operation

July 16, 2025
Erdoğan’s propaganda office claims he is Turkey’s greatest, most powerful brand

Erdogan ousts powerful propaganda chief amid intelligence power play

July 15, 2025
Turkish spy agency steps up recruitment of informants among diaspora during holiday season

Turkish spy agency steps up recruitment of informants among diaspora during holiday season

July 14, 2025
Turkish military fails to explain deaths of 12 soldiers in Iraq cave operation

Turkish military fails to explain deaths of 12 soldiers in Iraq cave operation

July 11, 2025
US lawsuit exposes Turkey-based Ponzi scheme tied to Syrian opposition figure

US lawsuit exposes Turkey-based Ponzi scheme tied to Syrian opposition figure

July 10, 2025
US indictment exposes Turkish link in global drug trafficking network

US indictment exposes Turkish link in global drug trafficking network

July 9, 2025
Turkish military lacks qualified officers to be promoted to general

Turkey’s army struggles with staff officer crisis, turns to aging generals for relief

July 8, 2025
US lawmakers target Turkey’s classification, triggering pushback from Erdogan gov’t

US lawmakers target Turkey’s classification, triggering pushback from Erdogan gov’t

July 7, 2025

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor is a news web site and tracking site that is run by the Stockholm-based Nordic Research and Monitoring Network. It covers religious, ideological and ethnic extremist movements and radical groups, with a special focus on Turkey.

Tags

al-Qaeda Andrei Karlov China coup Cyprus Diyanet Egypt espionage Germany Greece Gülen Movement Hakan Fidan Hamas Hulusi Akar Ibrahim Kalın IHH Iran IRGC Quds Force ISIL ISIS Isis al-qaida Israel Libya Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı MIT Muslim Brotherhood NATO President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Profiling Qatar Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Russia SADAT spying Spying Activities Suleyman Soylu Sweden Syria Torture Turkey Turkish Intelligence Agency Turkish intelligence agency MIT Ukraine United States

Recent News

UAE and Turkey agree to protect data in secret defense projects

UAE and Turkey agree to protect data in secret defense projects

July 18, 2025
Secret documents reveal abuse of Interpol mechanisms by Turkish government

Turkey secretly plots to bypass INTERPOL rules to target exiled journalist in Sweden

July 17, 2025
UN working group declares 2016 coup allegations baseless, undermining Erdogan’s narrative

Erdogan gov’t accused of hiding a coup report to cover up evidence of false flag operation

July 16, 2025

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.