Turkey’s Contact Tracing Infrastructure From Security and Privacy Perspective

Abstract

Contact tracing applications may lead to security and privacy concerns. Turkey’s contact tracing application (Hayat Eve Sığar, abbreviated as HES), which is introduced during COVID-19 pandemic, have not been covered yet for its security and privacy features. Comparison of HES with the existing cutting-edge contact tracing approaches could be used to analyse and determine the features of HES. Comparison indicated the undocumented security and privacy features of HES and revealed a set of vulnerabilities that could cause serious attacks. Mitigation techniques against vulnerabilities are proposed but current HES application includes serious attacks that could be performed by an insider or an outsider. The analysis emphasized to be considered in the design of similar applications that will emerge in the future.