Pro-Erdoğan ANT Increases Its Cyber-Attacks Across Europe

They call themselves Aslan Neferler Tim (ANT, or Lion Soldiers Team in Turkish): this is a group of fiercely nationalist Turkish hackers, who act more and more aggressively against, as it were, 'any anti-Erdoğan object that moves' in cyberspace – causing huge frustration, and counter-hacking campaigns.

After a series of attacks against Austrian institutions such as Central Bank and some key ministries in autumn of 2016, a trace led to one individual, Arslan A., aka General Osman, in Kentucky. But he represented only the tip of the iceberg. His identification led to a larger group, operating as a collective, with their adoration of Erdoğan and his rule in common. The group members call themselves "askerler" (or “soldiers”) and reportedly there are at least 50 of them in 'action'.

FireEye has been tracking ANT since its emergence. In the last three years, the collective has launched attacks against Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands — and that’s just in the EU. ANT has also launched attacks on Armenia, Iraq, Israel, and the United States. The group, Mortola explains, focuses on three types of attacks: DDoS, defacement, and occasional compromises of individual sites. They’ve also been involved in a handful of data leaks.

As Turkey now flexes its muscles to the outer world more visibly than ever, Sarah Souli explains the how and why of these actions.