Turkish hacks

Has PM Erdogan succeeded in the cyber domain?

On the 15th of March, 2017 Hundreds of high profile twitter accounts were hacked by Pro-Erdogan Turkish hackers. The accounts including Forbes, Amnesty International and UNICEF were plastered with incendiary remarks stating that Germany and the Netherlands were full of ‘Nazis’.

Who were the culprits?

It remains to been seen who the actual perpetrators of the attack were but their modus operandi has been discovered. The hackers are considered guilty of ‘online vandalism’.

The hackers could breach through the Twitter interface through a ‘third party permissions’ access. Twitter enters a contract with users and they grant them certain permissions based on their actions. This ranges from the basic functioning of posting character messages to entire command of the given account. If this third party or Twitter counter is breached, hackers can easily enter the system such was the case in this hack.

What was the cause of the attack?

The comments posted on the twitter accounts such as ‘#Nazi Germany’ etc; echo the sentiment put forth by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his inflammatory remarks against the governments in the past few weeks. Erdogan was infuriated that Turkish Ministers were denied clearance to hold rallies amongst the Turkish diaspora. This was to raise support for the upcoming referendum in certain parts of Germany, Holland and Denmark. He declared in vicious tirades against the nations that they were authoritarian and pushing a Nazi ideology. This is seen in the Twitter hack as Pro-Erdogan supporters sought to ‘punish’ the nations for taking a strong stance against him.

The referendum is set to take place on April 16th and if successful Erdogan will succeed in granting himself increased power as President, last seen only during the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and the powers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Assessment

Erdogan and his supporters are treading on thin ice by referencing and attacking nations like Germany and the Netherlands with slanderous remarks over them being ‘Nazi’ in nature. But this highlights a growing issue for the future of the E.U and whether or not to allow Erdogan’s Turkey to enter. Now judging from their behaviour, Turkey might be rescinding their bid. For years, it seemed like they were evolving their policies to become more European but Erdogan and his party are moving towards a nationalism never seen in Turkey before. This could prove to be a turning point in the goals of the Turkish, who once were grasping for membership now might pushing them away and eventually an acrimonious relationship could be on the cards.