Turkey grapples with false degree controversy

In recent years, Turkey has been grappling with a series of data breaches and forgery scandals that have raised concerns about the security of its digital infrastructure.

The biggest food delivery app in the country, Yemeksepeti, suffered a cyberattack in 2021, resulting in the leak of personal data from 19 million customers. This was just the beginning of a long line of data breaches.

In August 2022, the Interior Ministry launched an investigation into a data breach that affected millions of Turkish citizens. By the following year, a cyberattack on the country's main public administration portal resulted in the leak of the personal data of 85 million Turkish citizens and millions of residents.

The forgery scandal came to light in 2021, with allegations that a wide-ranging forgery network had been operating in the country since at least August 2020. Among the most scandalous items was a supposedly fake degree issued to a civil engineer whose company won major infrastructure tenders.

The forgery network is accused of producing fake university diplomas, altering academic records, and manipulating driver's license exams. Transcripts were altered to boost students' grades or facilitate transfers.

The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) labelled the forgery case as one of the most severe in the history of the republic, linking it to years of eroded meritocracy and weakened oversight. The Turkish Psychologists Association pointed to alarming cases of fake psychologists treating patients for fees, warning that such practices put public health at risk.

The diploma scandal has emerged alongside other forgery investigations, including allegations that civil registry officials issued fake passports and IDs to foreign nationals in exchange for bribes.

The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) denied the reports, saying that none of the suspects under investigation worked as academics in Turkish universities. However, the Chamber of Computer Engineers (BMO) highlighted how copied e-signatures exposed serious flaws in digital infrastructure.

The Istanbul Bar Association described the scandal as a blow to public order and a "grave disrespect" to colleagues who lost their lives in the earthquakes, whose academic records were unlawfully altered.

The opposition party, CHP, sharply criticized the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) and its president, Abdullah Karagözoğlu, for cybersecurity failures. Suat Özçağdaş, the Istanbul deputy and party vice chair of the CHP, demanded accountability and called for the resignations of ministries and institutions responsible for the security of digital infrastructure.

In response to the growing concerns, the BTK shared a public announcement that stated 35 fraudulent e-signatures were cancelled and 9 additional fraudulent e-signatures were revoked. However, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Parti) accuses state institutions involved in the diploma forgery scandal in Turkey.

These incidents underscore the need for technical fixes, stronger cybersecurity measures, clear accountability, legal reform, and a commitment to transparency to address the systemic weaknesses in Turkey's digital infrastructure, oversight mechanisms, and accountability structures. The question 'Which chain of institutional neglect across which state bodies caused these data breaches?' must be answered to prevent similar incidents in the future.