Turkey is in process of recovering from a major power cut that brought the country almost to a stop. According to some media reports from Turkey almost the entire country was affected by the massive power cut. Officials are considering the possibility that they were hit by a major cyber attack that was directed at its critical infrastructure.
The Turkish government is currently
presenting the power cut as technical issue but some suspect that a
state sponsor could have authorized this massive cyber attack against
Ankaras electric grid and other features of its critical
infrastructure.
Turkish officials said that the issue
stems from technical problem with the computer system of the Turkish
Electricity Conduction Company which is responsible for
controlling power lines.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated
that every possibility including a terrorist attack is being
investigated.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz
added that officials were investigating whether the power outage was
result of a cyber attack. The energy minister said: «I also cannot
say whether or not there was a cyber attack. The most important thing
for us is to bring the system back to life. This is not something we
frequently experience. »
If officials do determine that Turkey
was hit by major cyber attack, Iran will likely be seen as primary
suspect.
The power cut happened as tensions
increasingly rise between Iran and Turkey over past few weeks.
Although it takes time to determine attribution from a cyber attack
some news outlets
report that authorities are highly suspicious that Iran has supported
the attack.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan recently said condemning the Shiite regime: «Iran is trying
to chase [the Islamic State] from the region only to take its place».
Turkish president also condemned Iran for aiding «terrorist groups»
in taking over Yemen. The remarks that reportedly angered Iranian
government officials who demanded an apology from Turkey.
The two countries have also had major
falling out in diplomatic relations due to the Syrian civil war.
While Iran is strong supporter of the Assad regime Turkey fiercely
opposes Assads grip on Syria. The countries also find themselves on
opposite sides about the current conflict in Yemen.
Iran dedicated major resources
towards expanding its cyber warfare capabilities over past few
years.
Some speculated that Iran became one
of the number one cyber threats such as China and Russia. Iran was
once considered a D-grade cyber threat. Now its almost on the same
level as Russia or China.
Iran also showed that it has the
ability to breach the United States critical infrastructure network
where Iran infiltrated U.S. water, gas, and transit systems while
also successfully breaching airport security networks.
In February Irans Ayatollah Khamenei
said in an address to his military cyber units: «You are the cyber
war agents… get yourselves ready for such war wholeheartedly. »
