Former Ercan employee suspected of attempting to destroy data

In Ercan, a former employee of the airport operator company was arrested on suspicion of installing malware on the main server in order to delete data.

According to the investigation, on the evening of June 22 an unidentified person gained remote access to the airport’s central server and uploaded a virus that was supposed to automatically delete system data on August 2.

However, IT specialists detected the malware in time and neutralized it. As a result, data loss and damage to the servers were avoided.

Following a complaint by T&T Havalimanı İşletmeciliği Ltd., police launched an investigation. The suspect turned out to be a former head of the IT department who had left the company shortly before the incident.

Investigators examined the server connection logs and determined through which company access was made at the time the virus was installed. Police are now checking this information and also trying to determine whether other malware had been uploaded to the servers.

The court granted the investigation’s request and ordered that the suspect remain in custody for two more days.