Turkish engineering firm STM Defence organised one of Turkey’s most well-known cyber security events; ‘7. Capture The Flag-CTF’. White hat hackers competed for 24 hours in cyberspace to find system vulnerabilities in topics such as cryptology, reverse engineering, web and mobile applications.
A total of 394 teams with 710 competitors took part in the competition. President of Defence Industries (SSB) Professor İsmail Demir said, “We have to protect the data and information as we protect our borders and homeland.”
The CTF is held online this year due to the pandemic. STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz and Turkey Cyber Security Cluster General Coordinator Alpaslan Kesici made the opening remarks.
“We must protect our data like our borders.”
Stating that the concept of security has changed drastically with digitalisation, Demir said, “In today’s world, those who dominate technology and data, produce, use and store data in digital media can also dominate all elements. It has become mandatory to fortify physical security with cyber security, domestic software, artificial intelligence and the digital industry. We have to protect the data and information as if we protect our borders and homeland. For this reason, one of the most important areas of our defence industry has been determined as cyber security. We know that there is serious potential in the field of cyber security in our country. Under the auspices of our Presidency, we established the Turkey Cyber Security Cluster to contribute to developing a local and national cyber ecosystem in our country. Our aim here is to break foreign domination in our country in the field of cyber security and to create a domestic cyber security ecosystem.”
“CTF is an opportunity for young people with career aspirations in cybersecurity.”
Stating that they see CTF as an important opportunity for young people who aim for a career in the field of cyber security, Demir said, “The CTF competitions organised by STM, which stands out with its innovative approach and unique outputs in cyber security, to raise awareness in this field and to develop human resources, are organised every year. It has become an organisation of interest to young people and cybersecurity researchers who want to pursue a career in the field of security.”
“We aim for the technologies of the future, not of today.”
Özgür Güleryüz, General Manager of STM, said, “As a company that develops high-tech, domestic and national solutions for the critical needs of our country in the field of the defence industry, we aim to develop the technologies of the future, not of today. Cyberspace in the digitised world; the fourth area of operation after land, air and sea. We see defence as a whole and cyber security as an indispensable part of our country. As STM, we shape our cyber security capabilities in line with the public and private sectors; We maintain a holistic activity from cyber threat intelligence to technical analysis of malware, from operations to decision support processes and awareness-raising. We create this awareness in our youth whenever we have the opportunity to close the expert gap in cyber security in our country. With Turkey’s longest-running ‘CTF’ event; We lay the groundwork for the interest of our young people in this subject, and as cyber security researchers, we aim to show that there is a career opportunity in our defence industry.”
