The widespread systemic disruption caused by CrowdStrike, which has been experienced in Turkey as well as around the world, has caused serious disruptions in many public and private sector institutions. According to BBC Turkish, this outage has caused significant disruptions especially in transportation, banking and vehicle inspection services. Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu stated in a statement he made early Friday that a significant portion of the outage has been fixed and that the necessary measures have been taken to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Uraloğlu said in his statement, “We have resolved most of the problems by making rapid interventions in some of our institutions regarding the affected systems. We have planned the necessary measures to prevent recurrence.” In addition, the Minister stated that they are in constant communication with the private sector and public institutions to prevent such interruptions from occurring again.
BTK: Crowdstrike product-related issues
The Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) announced that the outage occurred in institutions and organizations using the Crowdstrike product. BTK shared its solution suggestions with the Cyber Incidents Intervention Teams (SOME) and emphasized that the work to ensure our country’s cyber security continues uninterrupted.
The National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM) within BTK and SOME teams in various institutions continue to work 24/7 to prevent cyber incidents and minimize potential damage. These teams work in coordination and cooperation at the national level.
The transportation sector and Turkish Airlines were affected
The disruptions have affected major companies such as Turkish Airlines (THY) and Denizbank the most. THY announced that 84 flights were canceled due to problems with ticketing, check-in and reservation processes. THY Press Counselor Yahya Üstün stated that their operations were partially affected due to the disruptions. This situation seriously disrupted passengers’ travel plans and caused long waits at airports.
Denizbank announced that many institutions were affected by technical glitches in the global software system. The bank said they were working intensively to fix the glitches and that all channels would be put back into service as soon as possible. Computers in Denizbank branches opened with error messages in the morning hours and there were problems throughout the day with transactions such as EFT.
Vehicle inspection operations and other affected entities
Tüvtürk, which provides periodic vehicle inspection services, also announced that it was affected by the outages. The company stated that technical disruptions around the world also affected many institutions in Turkey, and that this situation caused delays in vehicle inspection processes.
Cybersecurity expert Eyüp Çelik stated that some banks, airlines and e-commerce companies in Turkey were affected by the outages. Çelik stated that Crowdstrike works cloud-based and therefore he thinks that public institutions in Turkey are not affected by these outages. He also pointed out that the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency’s (BDDK) regulations regarding the use of cloud-based security products in the banking sector may also be related to these incidents.
Çelik, who stated that BTK’s solution suggestions are solutions provided by the manufacturer, said that the implementation of these solutions may take time and that applying them to a large number of computers may prolong the process. For this reason, he stated that some institutions are racing against time to solve the problem.
In summary, this outage caused by Crowdstrike has caused disruptions to many important services in Turkey, and intensive work is being carried out to fully resolve the issue.