Istanbul-based telecommunication services provider Turkcell has introduced a blockchain-based service for ID management, news outlet Daily Sabah reported on Feb. 26. Turkcell reportedly announced its new blockchain product at the technology fair Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 on Feb. 25. The ID Management solution is designed to provide users with control over their personal information and ensure privacy in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. While existing ID management systems consider sharing of users’ data with third parties, Turkcell’s blockchain product purportedly stores required user data on a blockchain and eliminates additional identity verification. Turkcell also presented …

Turkish police have arrested 24 people allegedly involved in a 13 million Turkish lira ($2.47 million) hack from an unnamed crypto firm in Istanbul, local government-backed media Daily Sabah reported on Feb. 12. Following a report of an alleged hack from a crypto-related company in Istanbul, the city police’s Cybercrime Department found that that stolen money was moved out directly from hacked accounts to accounts on other exchanges. The money was reportedly stolen in major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP). Turkish police further launched an operation to track the suspects, and discovered that the suspected individuals …

The Cybercrime Department of the Turkish National Police has arrested 11 suspects in an alleged hack of crypto accounts, with victims reporting more than $80,000 in losses, major Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reported Friday, Nov. 2. According to the article, 14 individuals have reported to local prosecution authorities that their crypto wallets were hacked with their Bitcoin (BTC) transferred to other wallets. Following the complaints, the Istanbul police launched an investigation against a group of hackers that had allegedly compromised users’ emails, crypto wallets’ accounts data, and passwords. On Oct. 26, cybercrime unit agents detained 11 people in multiple locations in …

Turkey's Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) has developed a blockchain-powered customer database, Daily Sabah reported September 6. Founded in 2013, BIST is the result of the merger of the Istanbul Stock Exchange, the Istanbul Gold Exchange, and the Turkish Derivatives Exchange (TurkDex). Per the exchange’s annual report for 2017, it has 399 listed companies, a market capitalization of around $133 billion, and $1 trillion of total traded value. The recent development will synchronize the customer databases of Borsa Istanbul, Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank), and the Central Securities Depository of Turkey (MKK). The new platform, which is “designed …

Mainstream media seized on the unravelling currency crisis in Turkey Monday, August 13, with Bloomberg publicizing a demonstration of Bitcoin’s (BTC) comparatively low volatility. Leading with the headline “Turkey Meltdown Propels Lira Volatility Above Bitcoin,” Bloomberg became the latest publication to reveal the full extent of the Turkish national currency’s devaluation this year. “The 10-day swings in the lira relative to the U.S. dollar now exceed those for Bitcoin amid Turkey’s escalating currency crisis,” Bloomberg reports. Turkey has seen an uptick in consumer interest in Bitcoin since the lira, which had already halved in value against the dollar since January, …

Turkey has established the country’s first university-level blockchain center, aiming to close the blockchain expertise gap and ensure wide deployment of the technology, local news outlet Daily Sabah reported August 3. The Istanbul Blockchain and Innovation Center (BlockchainIST Center) was inaugurated at Bahçeşehir University (BAU). According to the center’s director Bora Erdamar, BlockchainIST is set to be “the most important center of research and development and innovation in Turkey in which scientific studies and publications are made in blockchain technologies.” Erdamar said that Turkey may have a chance to become the leading country in technology that will “transform humanity.” He …

Turcoin, advertised by its creators as Turkey’s “national” cryptocurrency, has been outed as a ponzi scheme, Hürriyet Daily News reports Monday, June 18. Muhammed Satıroğlu, a major shareholder of the company that launched the coin has told the media it “doesn’t have a single dollar in the bank.” Istanbul-based company Hipper, whose partners Muhammed Satıroğlu and Sadun Kaya launched ‘Turcoin’ in 2017, is the subject of a criminal complaint after payouts to investors stopped in early June 2018. Speaking to local outlet Hürriyet Daily News, Satıroğlu, who owns a 49 percent stake in Hipper, claimed he was “only a mediator” …

Arab markets were flooded with new investors in April after an Islamic scholar announced cryptocurrency is halal under Sharia law. The announcement settled contradicting statements issued by several other Islamic experts, but there are still conflicting interpretations of Sharia’s allowance of virtual currencies among Muslim leaders. The mufti’s announcement opened crypto markets to potentially 1.6 billion new customers, but it is certain that Middle Eastern governments will play a central role in the development of the crypto industry in order to ensure individuals and institutions adhere to Sharia law. Sharia law places strict guidelines on economic activity whereby value must …

Microsoft’s Windows Defender Antivirus has blocked an attack of more than 400,000 attempts over a span of 12 hours for trojans to infect users with a cryptocurrency miner, according to a Microsoft blog post on March 7. Windows Defender’s research showed that a little before noon (PST) on March 6, Windows Defender Antivirus began detecting these sophisticated trojans, which are new variants of an application called Dofoil (or Smoke Loader), attempting to inject cryptocurrency mining malwares through “advanced cross-process injection techniques, persistence mechanisms, and evasion methods.” The majority, or 73 percent, of these instances came from Russia, with 18 percent …

North Korean hackers are suspected in a cyberattack on Turkey’s financial sector, as stated in a report released by McAfee March 8. The McAfee Advanced Threat Research team identified an attempt by the hacking group Hidden Cobra to breach the security of Turkish government-backed financial institutions on March 2 and 3. While McAfee policy is to not officially identify cyber groups from nation-states as culprits, they mention in the report that the code of the malware in question closely resembles code used by a hacking operative associated with North Korea. The hackers used modified malware known as a “Bankshot” which …

A recent survey from ING aiming to gain better understanding of retail customers' banking and spending habits, suggests that Turkey is the country where digital currencies have the highest acceptance rate. The ING International Survey, conducted by Ipsos between January 16, and February 2, surveyed some 14,000 consumers from 15 countries on their views and habits towards mobile banking and payment. The results highlight the emergence of a cashless economy and an increasing use of mobile payment apps, with the Netherlands leading the way as the "most developed" mobile banking market, followed by the USA and the UK. However, Turkey …