Turkey’s banking sector hit by Anonymous cyber attacks

The notorious hacking group Anonymous has conducted yet another cyber attack on Turkey's cyberspace targeting its banking system.

According to local media, several banks were hit in a series of powerful DDoS attacks affecting credit card transactions and other online banking services.

The hackers began to attack the banking and financial websites on Thursday and attacks kept on coming till Friday evening. Some suggest the attacks were coming from Russia as a backlash to what happened in Turkish-Syrian border last month.

On Monday, a YouTube video claiming to be from Anonymous claimed that Turkey is supporting the terrorist group Daesh or ISIS and in retaliation the group will hit the country's airports, banks, government and military servers.

The very next day Turkish DNS Servers under NIC.tr was targeted with 40Gbps DDoS attack affecting 40,000 .tr domains worldwide.

''If you don't stop supporting ISIS, we will continue attacking your internet, your root DNS, your banks and take your government sites down. After the root DNS, we will start to hit your airports, military assets and private state connections. We will destroy your critical banking infrastructure. Stop this insanity now Turkey. Your fate is in your own hands,'' said Anonymous.

Three banks that have confirmed the attack include state lender Ziraat Bank, Isbank and Garanti. The Turk Telekom has also confirmed the attack. Onur Oz, one of the spokesmen from Turk Telekom Internet provider told Reuters, ''The attacks are serious, but the target is not Turk Telekom. Instead, banks and public institutions are under heavy attack. A majority of Turkish institutions use Turk Telekom as their service provider, therefore, we are the ones doing the defence against these attacks.''

Binali Yildirim, the Turkish minister for transport, maritime affairs, and communications said that situation is under control and a government cyber security take is defending the country's cyber infrastructure.

The state of Turkey has been accused of aiding and buying oil from the Daesh terrorist group. Some also accuse Turkey of providing a safe passage for the group's recruits in Syria.