Turkey-based Comodo develops new tailor-made software

A world leader in cybersecurity, Turkish firm Comodo is currently developing tailor-made software for corporations with a $30-million-investment in research and development. Creating his first electronic circuit at the age of 9, Melih Abdülhayoğlu founded Comodo in the United Kingdom in 1998. With a staff of 1,200 engineers in more than five countries, Comodo is planning to invest $12 million in research and development each year in Turkey with its laboratories at Middle East Technical University and Istanbul Technical University.

A prominent leader in the world digital certificate sector with a 42 percent market share, Comodo provided cybersecurity measures during U.S. President Barack Obama's election campaign. Providing services for critical institutions including NASA, IBM, the New York Stock Exchange and many U.S.-based companies, Comodo Turkey General Manager Ömer Güneş said Turkey needed to move forward with software programs that have their own source codes. Stating that Turkish firms selling cybersecurity products were only selling certificates, Güneş stressed that this situation was the biggest cybersecurity weakness in the country. He also added he formed research and development firms in Turkey regardless of higher costs compared to other countries, and the products manufactured domestically were also exported.

According to Güneş, the anti-virus period has ended in cybersecurity and been replaced by an understanding that enables developers to think like a hacker and prevent possible security risks before they happen. "The biggest weakness is not being able to develop a written program because hackers constantly renew the viruses. That is why selling a cybersecurity product to the Turkish public without a research and development center in Turkey creates weakness," Güneş said, also stressing that the government should make it obligatory for a firm that was selling a product related to cybersecurity in Turkey to establish a local research and development center as well.

Programs developed in Turkey:

Korugan - A United Threat Management (UTM) app that was developed in 18 months and is currently being exported.

Savungan - Mobile security software developed for Android devices is the fastest free program with a 4-second scan time. KoruMail (Secure Email Gateway) - With high-level email security and management, this product has an effective spam and phishing detection system. It is widely used by public institutions and companies in Turkey.

Securebox - It was named the gold winner in the "Intrusion, Detection and Prevention" category at the 2015 Global Excellence Awards by InfoSecurity. This original product was developed with substantial contributions by Turkish engineers like many other products.