Cyber Incident Victim: Istanbul Police Association
Date:
Mar 2015
Location:
Turkey
Summary
A Turkish hacktivist group compromised and defaced the Istanbul Police Association's official website, redirecting visitors to an external page hosting a political message condemning the country's leadership and vowing retribution for the death of a teenager injured during protests. The attackers gained administrative access to alter the site's content, which criticized specific government figures and parties while memorializing the victim. This incident marked a repeated pattern of targeting by the same group, which had previously breached the association's digital assets and government-linked social media accounts in connection to the same protest-related fatality. The website became inaccessible following the attack.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On March 12, 2015, the Turkish hacktivist group RedHack compromised the official website of the Istanbul Police Association (http://www.istanbulpolisdernegi.org/) to mark the first anniversary of Berkin Elvan’s death. Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old, had died on March 11, 2014, after sustaining a head injury from a teargas canister fired during the 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul; he had remained in a coma for 269 days prior to his death. RedHack gained administrative privileges to the association’s website and redirected its homepage to an external page hosted on pasteht.ml, an anonymous HTML hosting service. Visitors attempting to access the police association’s site were automatically redirected to http://pasteht.ml/Y19qE, which displayed a Turkish-language message condemning then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his ruling AKP party, and law enforcement agencies. The message declared Berkin Elvan “immortal,” accused the AKP of being “killers,” and vowed revenge for his death, framing the action as part of a broader revolutionary struggle.
This incident mirrored previous operations by RedHack against the same target. In December 2014, the group had hacked the Istanbul Police Association’s website to protest government policies. Additionally, in March 2014, RedHack had breached the Twitter account of Mustafa Varank, a top adviser to Erdoğan, following Berkin Elvan’s death. The 2015 defacement disrupted access to the police association’s site, rendering it temporarily unavailable to legitimate users. The association or its hosting providers eventually took the website offline entirely to remove the defacement, though no explicit remediation steps were detailed in available reports. The attack highlighted ongoing tensions between hacktivist groups and Turkish authorities, particularly regarding accountability for protest-related casualties. No collateral damage to other systems or data theft was disclosed in connection with this incident.