Information and communications technology

A branch known as the "white hat hackers," set up within the Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), has been tracing abusive social media accounts following reports that there were videos on YouTube with child abuse content.

Cyber police forces also have taken action to identify social media accounts sharing content that could tantamount to abuse.

Daily internet traffic in Turkey has surged by 50 percent during the coronavirus outbreak in the country as people heed stay-at-home orders, with many working from their houses and getting schooled online, the CEO of a major telecom company has said.

As the newly elected member of Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Slobodan Cvejic said, the further outcome will be seen after the convening of the regular session, which must be attended by the other party to declare itself, after which the Council will discuss and make a final decision.

Europe needs an investment plan in cybersecurity now more than ever, to be adjusted to the challenges generated by the novel coronavirus crisis, Minister of transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lucian Bode, who participated in the informal meeting of the ministers of telecommunications, through video conferencing, said on Tuesday.

The Romanian capital, Bucharest, tops the list, followed by Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta, all in the US. The Hungarian capital, Budapest, came in fourth, ahead of San Francisco.

Turkey's mobile telephone users will enjoy 1-gigabyte data of free internet during the holy month of Ramadan, the country's transport and infrastructure minister has announced.

The government has made the necessary arrangement for free internet access with the mobile phone operators, Adil Karaismailoğlu said.

Greece's telecommunication networks have responded well to the pandemic crisis so far. Despite the increase in traffic coming to at least 50 percent, as noted by British consultancy Tech4i2, the slowdown in internet speeds around the country has been the smallest compared to networks elsewhere in Europe.

As data cables buckle under a heavier load, streaming service Netflix announced on March 27 that it is set to reduce its share of telecommunications traffic in Turkey and elsewhere by 25 percent.

The statement came amid the global coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in Wuhan, China last December and has spread to over 176 countries and regions.

The police cybercrime division in northern Greece unraveled a new child pornography case on Wednesday and indicted a foreign national.
Police had received a complaint that an unknown internet user sent a file containing pornographic images to a female minor via a social networking site and then managed to extract explicit photos from her.

Greece was without any fiber optic connections at least until June, the latest figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have shown. Greece also ranked last among the OECD's 37 member-states on the index showing the ratio of fiber optic broadband connections to the total number of landline broadband connections.