14 DAY TRIAL // The notorious RedHack collective has breached the systems of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YÖK), leaking a total of more than 60,000 documents apparently related to corruption investigations that target universities.
The hacktivists say they’ve found cases of corruption at various educational institutions, including Istanbul University, the Uludağ University in Bursa, Marmara University, and Çukurova University.
“Some of the documents includes claims of banks buying luxurious vehicles for university rectors in exchange for them agreeing to deposit university tuition fees at the particular bank,” the hackers said about the Istanbul University in their latest press release.
“Also bank accounts opened in the names of the students, without their knowledge and appropriate ID’s to gain customers for the banks in order to secure these luxurious vehicles and monies handed to universities,” they added.
Another document published by the hacktivists shows that the president of YÖK has failed to take any action after being notified by the State Prosecutors Office regarding the fact that the Public Personnel Selection Examination questions have been shared online before the exam.
“One of these documents shows that a cleaning tender at Uludağ University in Bursa led to a 3 million Turkish Lira public loss, while another shows that a candidate with a fake diploma was hired at Kastamonu University as a lecturer,” the hackers said.
The leaked documents have sparked protests among Turkish students, who have asked university rectors involved in acts of corruption to step down.
“We cannot be stopped because we take our power from the people. People of Turkey should stand against corrupt and cruel AKP (Justice and Development Party) government and hold them to account by taking to streets,” the hackers said.