The “Presidential Decree Amending the Presidential Decree on Cybersecurity Presidency” published with the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came into force after publication in the Official Gazette.
The decree changed the organizational structure of the Cybersecurity Presidency and added the term “digital state” to the Presidency’s job description. In this context, the Presidency will carry out legislative studies in the field of digital state and cybersecurity and prepare national strategies and action plans.
In addition, the authorities for artificial intelligence applications in the public sector were consolidated under the Cyber Security Presidency and the General Directorates of Public Artificial Intelligence and Digital Government were established within the Presidency.
Ertan Barut, President of the Turkish Software Council of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), said that the relevant regulations are evidence of the will to shift cybersecurity to a more corporate, coordinated and sustainable governance model.
Stating that clarifying the organizational structure and mandate of the Cyber Security Presidency is an important threshold for standardizing public digital architecture, data security, security of supply and national capacity building, as well as protecting critical infrastructure, Barut continued:
“Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical protection activity, but a wide-ranging strategic area, ranging from public policy to economic sustainability, from international competitiveness to digital sovereignty. Expanding the institutional scope of the cybersecurity presidency, clearer definition of duties, roles and responsibilities, and increasing coordination capacity in this area will reduce our country's risks and increase the speed of decision-making. This step is an institutionalization step in the right direction in terms of national security and critical ones Infrastructures.”
“The central coordination approach is the right framework”
Stating that the centralized coordination approach is a correct framework in terms of national security and public order, Barut said: “By strengthening the organizational structure, it will be possible to reduce role confusion between institutions in the event of an incident, ensure faster control from a single center in the event of a crisis, and disseminate common standards and methods at the national level. This will both reduce the damage and increase the operational resilience of our country.” he said.
Ertan Barut explained that strengthening the cyber security presidency, if properly designed, will attract investments, increase exports, produce technology and accelerate the scaling of the cyber security sector, explaining that it is necessary to maintain this balance well so that excessive bureaucracy does not slow down the pace of the ecosystem.
Barut explained that the talent pool needs to be developed for continued success in cybersecurity and concluded:
“By 2030, we need 100,000 skilled cybersecurity professionals. We need to initiate a mobilization process with universities, vocational schools, certificate programs, upskilling models and sectoral-public collaboration. As our youth, engineers and trained skilled workforce are in high demand on a global scale, skilled career paths, competitive wage policies, research infrastructures, training environments and applied internship/candidate programs are critical to stem the exodus of skilled workers and retaining talent. Our Presidency The standard-setting and coordinating role in this area is the ecosystem's contribution to “We hope that it will significantly increase its speed.”
“An important company step”
Erdem Eriş, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CyberArts, said: “The expansion of the Cyber Security Presidency's mandate to include digital state and artificial intelligence shows that cybersecurity in Turkey is no longer just a technical issue, but a strategic governance issue in terms of the continuity and reliability of public services.” he said.
Emphasizing that this approach is an important institutional step that focuses on the element of trust in digitized public processes, Eriş said: “With the proliferation of digital government applications, standards in areas such as critical data protection, service continuity and supply chain security need to be strengthened. In this context, issues such as the maturity of cyber incident response teams, 24/7 monitoring, incident response capacity, Protocol integrity and auditability have not only become best practices, but also part of corporate responsibility.” he said.
Eriş pointed out that although the use of artificial intelligence in public services brings efficiency, it also creates new risk areas such as data protection, model security, external dependency and attack surface expansion, saying:
“Success will therefore be possible not only through technology investments, but also through holistic risk management, continuous audits and a 'security starts at design' approach. If supported by correct implementation and strong coordination, this regulation provides an important opportunity for scaling the digital state based on trust and for growing the artificial intelligence ecosystem on a more solid foundation.”
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