In 2016, two major data breaches in Turkey exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million citizens and operational files from the National Police (EGM), marking a significant incident of hacktivism compromising national security. The incidents, including a 17.8GB police data dump by Anonymous and a database leak covering two-thirds of the population, led to the adoption of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK). For more details, visit WeLiveSecurity .
The mainstream media at the time glossed over the details, citing "sensitive police documents." But our exclusive forensic reconstruction of the surviving metadata (scraped from BitTorrent networks before the files were scrubbed) reveals a terrifyingly precise scope. turkish police data dump 2016 exclusive
The full, uncompressed file was approximately 17.8 gigabytes . It reportedly contained sensitive data siphoned from the police's internal systems over a two-year period. In 2016, two major data breaches in Turkey
– In 2016, Turkey experienced significant political turbulence, including a failed coup attempt in July. In the aftermath, there were various unverified leaks and claims of data breaches involving state institutions. Some online forums and fringe media outlets alleged “exclusive” dumps of police data, but these claims were never substantiated by major, reputable news organizations or cybersecurity firms. The mainstream media at the time glossed over
While some cybersecurity researchers found similarities to older leaks from 2014, the dump was presented as a major escalation in the digital campaign against the Turkish government. The April 2016 Citizenship Database Leak