Istanbul Police Association

The Istanbul Police Association is known by its alias, which identifies it as an association. Its headquarters is situated in Turkey. As an association, it functions as a membership organization that brings together individuals affiliated with the police sector in Istanbul. The association maintains an official website that serves as its primary platform for communication and information dissemination. The website is a key asset for the organisation, reflecting its presence in the digital sphere. Prior to any notable cyber incidents, the site was accessible to the public and used for sharing updates related to the association's activities.

On 11 March 2015, a Turkish hacktivist group compromised the Istanbul Police Association's official website. The attackers gained administrative access to the site and proceeded to deface its content. Visitors to the website were redirected to an external page that hosted a political message condemning the country's leadership. The same message also vowed retribution for the death of a teenager who had been injured during protests. Having obtained administrative privileges, the attackers altered the website's content to criticize specific government figures and parties. The altered content simultaneously memorialized the victim of the protest-related incident. Following these modifications, the website became inaccessible to users. This incident was not isolated; it marked a repeated pattern of targeting by the same hacktivist group. Prior to this attack, the group had previously breached the association's digital assets. The group had also compromised government-linked social media accounts. Those earlier breaches were connected to the same protest-related fatality that prompted the political message. Consequently, the Istanbul Police Association experienced a series of cyber intrusions linked to a single underlying event.