“Our aim is to continue our investments in this field in 2023 by creating a digital twin of Istanbul, water and ISKI.”
Tayfun İşbilen, Head of ISKI IT Department, which effectively manages the water cycle of 16 million Istanbulites from its source, discussed the challenges they faced as an organization during the pandemic, future investments, cyber security efforts, and their collaboration with Trend Micro.
Could you please describe the ISKI technology unit briefly? How many personnel are there, and what procedures do you manage?
The SK technology section is made up of four directorates and employs roughly 300 individuals. We provide operational technology and information technology services under this umbrella. ISKI has a Software Directorate with roughly 100 people because ISKI develops a substantial amount of its own software. We have an Information Technologies Directorate that handles all technological services. We have a unit here that manages servers, networks, and approximately 6000 clients, as well as all areas of cyber security. We also have the Electronic Communication Directorate, which is in charge of all UPS systems, fire detection systems, video systems, door entry systems, telephones, switchboards, and, in short, all communication connections. We are an organization with almost 12,000 employees working in the headquarters, 32 branches, treatment plants, and pumping stations.
What difficulties did you encounter during the pandemic? What steps did you take in terms of remote working and business continuity?
During the epidemic, the IT department experimented with remote working. Our IT team remained on the job. During this time, organizations realized that it is possible to work remotely in a variety of industries. Accounting workers, for example, discovered that they could work from home. Remote working is not widely known in the public sector, yet certain departments benefited from it during this time period. Furthermore, we increased our 20-30 connections to 1000, and with this VPN connection, all accounting, HR, and other units could connect from home and continue working comfortably. We were also convinced of the remote working concept around this time, which we couldn’t explain for years. Many people can now log in to the system and use their laptops and connections to work.
However, in some units, the remote working model cannot be implemented. We took advantage of the vacant streets at the time and completed critical work in areas where we cannot presently work. In Ortaköy and Beşiktaş, our construction units replaced 40-50 year old pipes with new ones.
One of today’s most pressing issues is cyber security. What kind of investments do you plan to make in this area?
We primarily collaborate with Trend Micro and use products from Trend Micro’s product families in the fields of endpoint, server, network, e-mail, and data security. With these products, we perform malware detection and behavior analysis, access control to malicious websites, file integrity control, virtual patching, device control (USB, External Disk), detection of advanced and targeted attacks, monitoring of protocols against malware, detection of abnormal traffic, suspicious file and url detection, malicious IP address and URL control, contr
What did you accomplish in collaboration with Trend Micro? What issues did you need to address, and how did you go about it?
Today’s most dangerous dangers are phishing, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), and Targeted Ransomware. These are the areas where organizations are most vulnerable to cyber attacks and attacks. We are working with Trend Micro to resolve these issues. At the same time, we continue to cooperate with Trend Micro and monitor new technologies in the fields of endpoint, server, network, e-mail security, and data security. Organizations are sometimes vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and our collaboration with Trend Micro has been extremely beneficial in decreasing the risks of assaults and thoroughly reviewing product outputs.
What are some instances from technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, and M2M?
Istanbul has a population of 16 million people and around 6 million subscribers. Every day, the metropolis consumes 3 million m3 of water. Asia has two-thirds of the water and Europe has two-thirds of the population. As a result, we are passing 1 million m3 of water every day beneath the sea. The major concern is that when individuals return home, the water runs at the appropriate pressure and quality. In these domains, we intend to use artificial intelligence, IoT, and machine learning. In this context, we are gathering more data from the field in order to build the entire system. Our ambition is to build a digital twin of Istanbul, water, and ISKI. In 2023, we will continue to invest in this area.
What is on your technology agenda for 2023, and which initiatives will you prioritize?
We are redesigning the subscriber management system, beginning with water management applications. Starting with the new technology and service architecture, our 40-person team will build the complete system from the ground up. We also have an OSO project in the field operations field. A meter reader assigned by SPER can read both water and natural gas meters. Aside from these, we have new system projects for internal applications, HR, finance, and warehouse. In addition, in collaboration with Isttelkom, we are overhauling our whole hardware and network infrastructure.
