Cyberattacks targeting the Turkish state have increased more than twofold since the failed July 15 coup attempt, according to Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan.

The minister told reporters that members of the Ministry has established a unit composed of 40 officials to counter cyberattacks aimed at the government in the aftermath of the foiled coup attempt that is blamed on a Gülenist junta.

Minister Arslan noted that the state institutions which were targeted in the attacks have begun to take additional security measures and are employing new personnel, noting: "We immediately deploy response teams in case of an attack." The bloody coup attempt that cost the lives of 241 people, most of them unarmed civilians who stood against coup plotters, prompted Turkey to declare a state of emergency. Arslan said that new statutory decrees made in the context of the state of emergency have allowed for the rapid deployment of security measures against cyber-attacks.