Turkish cybersecurity company competes with international firms

Turkish cybersecurity companies are on the rise due to recent cyberattacks targeting private and public institutions around Turkey. Alongside American, English and Israeli cybersecurity companies, some Turkish companies have been established to respond to the increasing number of techno-cities and financial initiatives for research and development.

One of these companies was founded by two young Turkish entrepreneurs in Ankara 12 years ago and now competes with international firms. Seçkin Güler, a company partner, spoke to Anadolu Agency and said that he conceived a cybersecurity startup with his partner, Oğuz Yılmaz, while the two were in college.

Güler said cybersecurity has gained more significance over the last 10 years. The two young partners founded the company in 2002 and are focusing on creating products rather than selling information. Güler said they want to use information for production. "If you do so, you can export products and make more profit. In 2003, we began releasing our products onto the market. At first, we had nothing to lose, but produced Turkey's first commercial cybersecurity defense wall. Later, the company also developed anti-spam, web filters and cyberattack detection products," he said. "In 2010, cyberwars became more visible. Anti-DDOS [distributed denial of service attack] software products were on the rise and we produced ours in 2012. Since 2005, we have been actively engaged with international clients in 20 countries.

Our company received more than 3,500 institutional references and we target not only the Eastern European market, but the Western European and the U.S. markets as well," Güler added. He also criticized Turkish companies for preferring international products for cyberattacks. "Our products have a 5 percent share in the cybersecurity market. We compete with U.S. and Israeli firms. If we expand our areas of operation, Turkey will be mentioned as a cybersecurity producer as well," he said.