About the Center

FBU Cyber Lab is an interdisciplinary research center based at Fenerbahce University, focusing on research at the intersection of digital media, global security, and human rights. We strive to engage in collaborative and interdisciplinary research to the most relevant issues in digitalization and cybersecurity governance, including normative and strategic dimensions of sectoral, national, and international cybersecurity practices, norms, regulations and policies. Our mission is to contribute to the efforts to secure cyberspace as an open, public commons of global information and communication in collaboration with the like-minded stakeholders in industry, civil society, and academia.

 

Director’s Message

Norbert Wiener, the founder of cybernetics, laid the theoretical foundations of the digital age in his seminal work published in 1948, defining the concept as “control and communication in living organisms and machines.” This visionary approach rapidly took shape in the aftermath of World War II; the foundations of the modern internet were laid with the transmission of the first message on ARPANET in 1969, and the global network structure (the Internet) matured with the standardization of the TCP/IP protocol in the 1980s. The public launch of the “World Wide Web” (WWW) in the 1990s and the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence technologies in the 2000s transformed the cyber domain from merely a technical medium into the fifth domain of operations—an inseparable part of social, economic, and political life.

Turkey’s digital transformation and cybersecurity strategies, however, have been a priority on the state’s policy agenda, particularly since the early 2000s. The decisions of the Cybersecurity Council published in 2012 and the subsequent establishment of the National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM) have strengthened the institutional framework in this area. Today, the concept of “cyber homeland” is regarded as a fundamental element of Turkey’s sovereignty and national security. In this context, the global digital ecosystem constitutes the most dynamic arena of international relations and social security, encompassing not only the opportunities it offers but also elements such as disinformation, digital manipulation, and hybrid threats.

As the Center for Applied Research in Cyberspace Studies at Fenerbahçe University, our core vision is to analyze the technical and social dynamics of this complex structure with scientific rigor. Our center aims to conduct interdisciplinary research spanning from the local and regional levels to the global scale in the fields of cybersecurity, data privacy, cryptography, and the sociology of digital media, in alignment with the national strategies established by the Presidency of Cybersecurity. In this context, our center aims to monitor the reports and standards of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK), international cybersecurity organizations, and relevant academic networks; conduct public opinion surveys, data analytics, and statistical and technical field studies; and develop high-quality national and international scientific publications and projects. Furthermore, it is our core principle to contribute both to the academic community and to societal cyber resilience by organizing international congresses, conferences, seminars, competitions, summer schools, and certified training programs focused on the ethical and technical dimensions of the cyber domain.

Asst. Prof. Melike Karatay