Pirate: Turkish regime uses hackers to extort Erdogan’s opponents (Part 3)

Mahmoud al-Batakoushi

The previous parts of the Pirate series dealt with the Turkish regime’s seizure of refugee funds and citizens’ contributions, as well as its desperate attempts to steal Syrian and Iraqi oil and take control of Mediterranean gas. This part reviews the regime’s piracy against its critics at home and abroad, whether individuals or organizations.

Pirate mentality

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is possessed by the idea of ​​piracy and espionage, as he commissioned his intelligence arms to spy on anyone who opposes him, whether governments or activists. Hackers working for the Turkish regime carried out large-scale cyber attacks throughout the world, targeting governmental institutions, embassies and security services.

The Turkish scheme included attacks that intercepted data flows on the websites of targeted entities, which enabled hackers to illegally enter the networks of government agencies and other institutions.

Records showed that among the victims of those attacks were Cyprus, the Greek government and the Iraqi government’s national security advisor.

Hackers working for Erdogan have penetrated at least 30 institutions, including ministries, embassies and security services, as well as other companies and organizations, contravening international laws regarding violating privacy, in an attempt to extort and bargain with certain countries.

These cyber attacks came in conjunction with the increased international pressure on the Turkish regime in response to its plans that target regional security, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, as Erdogan concluded an agreement with Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) leader Fayez al-Sarraj to demarcate the maritime borders with Libya, which violates maritime laws and the sovereign rights of Cyprus and Greece.

According to public internet records, the attacks also targeted Albanian intelligence and civil organizations inside Turkey.

The attacks included tracking the sites the victims visited, which could enable the hackers to gain unauthorized access to the networks of government agencies and other organizations.

Turkish espionage

Although the Turkish pirates focused mainly on countries with strained relations with Ankara, they also targeted local organizations that the Turkish government considers threats, such as the Turkish branch of the Freemasons.

Turkish hacking campaign seized passwords and other documents from victims, which were then used to gain access to the networks of governments and organizations.

Earlier, the Greek government said that Turkish hackers infiltrated the official pages of the Ministry of Finance, the Parliament, the National Intelligence Service and the Athens Stock Exchange, which came in response to alleged Greek threats against Turkey due to recent land disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In 2016, a group of Turkish nationalist hackers known for their focus on European Union countries attacked the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the foreign and defense ministries, and the federal army.

The Turkish hackers also frequently target websites and Twitter accounts of foreign media figures and politicians due to their political positions regarding Turkey’s leaders.

Secret documents

In a related context, leaked secret government documents revealed Turkey’s continuation of espionage, illegal cyber attacks and criminal investigations that targets critics of the Erdogan regime who live in Germany.

Secret documents obtained by the Swedish website Nordic Monitor showed that Turkey’s cyber police unit gathered reports on organizations affiliated with the opposition Hizmet movement of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is based in the United States, which were sent to the counter-terrorism department of the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate of Security.

Another confidential document indicated that the reports were submitted to the Europol and Interpol sections of the police, as well as regional police departments in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Konya.

The document urged the various police and intelligence units to work with the judicial authorities to do what is required regarding opponents.

Turkish police have attempted to obtain more information by initiating password recovery procedures and reassigning Twitter and Facebook accounts to these critics and their organizations, while others have been subjected to more hacking attempts.

The hacking campaigns come in addition to the Turkish embassies’ involvement in spying on government critics in 92 countries as part of a systematic espionage campaign to fulfill Erdogan’s wishes.