Major cyber attack on Turkish Energy Ministry reported

Turkish Energy Ministry has been under a major cyber attack, Turkish media reported citing a senior source from the ministry. The report followed the major power outages in Istanbul that has been ongoing for three days. 

"The attacks are generally aiming to seize internet sites and provide infiltrations," the senior source, whose identity wasn't disclosed, said on Dec. 31, adding that many attempts were prevented.

"Plenty of infiltration attempts to the systems controlling our transmition and electricity producing lines were determined and prevented. The infiltration attempts are the indicators of a major sabotage preparation on Turkey's national electricity network," he also said. 

Saying that the relevant institutions are taking precautions against the issue, the source noted that the intelligence units received intel on a possible and similar cyber attack on the New Year's eve. He also said that the cyber attacks started after July 15 failed coup attempt and have been increasing ever since. 

The media report came after Energy Ministry's earlier statement, who said that the ministry is working on the repair the damages.

"We are working with the police in cooperation in order to determine the damages," the statement read, adding that the efforts to resolve the issue have been ongoing with great speed.

"The efforts to repair the damages in the transmission lines that provide for Istanbul, which were caused by heavy snow fall and storm in the north of Marmara Region, have been ongoing with utmost speed. A total of 164 employees in four groups have been working on the issue," it also said. 

Saying that damages were done to transmission towers, the ministry noted that they are investigating the reason for...

Continue reading on: