Turkey: an emerging nation in cyber warfare Domain
The relationship between Turkey and Qatar has witnessed sturdy growth since during the blockade. Turkey transpired as a key player in providing cyber aid (both offensive and defensive) to Qatar. This relationship is getting deeper with the time as there were numerous bilateral agreements signed among both the nations in the domain of cyber and technology since 2017.
Recently, Turkey in collaboration with Hamad bin Khalifa University’sQatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), have successfully built a cyber security defence platform called ‘WARNING’. This platform will help in predicting and detecting cyber security threats against enterprises and critical infrastructure.
Qatar’s computing research Institute (QCRI), Qatar’s Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, and Turkey’s TOBB University of Economic and Technology jointly worked for three years to build this ‘WARNING’ platform.
This cyber security defence platform is user-friendly and produces high-quality intelligence about existing and novel cyber security threats. This platform is powered by novel artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies developed by the team and includes technology that can detect phishing domains as early as possible.
In the year 2017, when Qatar was dealing with the problem of the blockade, Turkey initiate the first step to starting a friendship with Qatar in the form of helping the Qatar nation in identifying suspects that were involved in the hacking campaign of the Qatar News Agency (QNA).
On 24th May 2017, the hackers hacked the official website of Doha’s State News Agency. The prosecutors in Qatar were working with the Turkish authorities to follow this case. A total of 5 people were arrested for operating this hacking campaign. This hacking campaign attributed explosive political remarks to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (Qatar’s Emir) that covered sensitive regional political subjects including Iran, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Israel and the United States.
Later, during December 2017, Turkey becomes the designated cyber support for Qatar’s bilateral contracts as there were mutual agreements signed between both nations. This International collaboration between Turkey and Qatar is aimed at developing solutions to Qatar’s cybersecurity challenges. The collaboration was formed through joint funding named ‘Academia-Industry Cooperation on Cybersecurity’ launched by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and turkey’s leading research agency.
The program was not limited to the cyber security challenges, in fact, it was also designed to foster public-private sector partnerships and maximize the impact of the research and innovation they produce.
Now, Turkey is providing cyber aid to Qatar nation in the form of cyber Intelligence facilities for the upcoming Event ‘FIFA World cup 2022’. To accomplish this task the MIT Officers (Turkey’s Intelligence Service) have been moving to Doha to work on security with their equivalents and interior ministry officials at Qatar’s state security.
Qatar as the closest ally of Turkey in the Gulf Nation, also enjoys the facility of Military Drones. In the matter of military, Qatar has strengthened their ties with Turkey by maintaining a military base in Qatar since 2015. Very recently, Qatar showed the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 military attack drone. Bayraktar means “ensign” or “standard-bearer” in Turkish. Bayraktar TB2 is a MALE (Medium altitude long endurance) unmanned combat aerial vehicle which is capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations.
Efforts from both sides are key to a successful partnership/relationship. With the above-mentioned points we can say that Turkey is one of the most reliable cyber support for Qatar, but in return Qatar too is providing financial support to the Turkish defence industry by investing $10bn in the Turkish economy.
