Why is the Turkish Government in the computer

certificatekeychainSecurity

Perusing Keychain Access, I see that "TÜBİTAK UEKAE Kök Sertifika Hizmet Sağlayıcısı – Sürüm 3" is listed as a trusted root certificate authority. Per this 2013 article, I understand that:

my laptop trusts anything signed by “TÜBİTAK UEKAE Kök Sertifika Hizmet Sağlayıcısı”. That’s, apparently, a Turkish government entity. Now, I’ve no particular reason to distrust them, but until a minute ago I had no idea that my computer trusted them. More concerningly, I wouldn’t really know if that certificate came built into [the OS] or just got added last week by a nasty bit of malware…

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Is this normal? How should I deal with such a thing?

  • Delete the certificate? (Is this even possible with S.I.P.?)
  • "Untrust" the certificate?
  • Is there a way to neutralize all the certificates which weren't there
    when the OS was first installed? (is this even a good idea?)

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Of note, there are a handful of other oddly named (therefore suspicious looking to me) certificates in my Keychain Access. Per the comments to this similar question I am reticent to just start deleting/disabling certificates without a better understanding of what I am doing, how to undo any damage I might cause by deleting certificates which look suspicious or a better understanding of the security issues.

Apologies if this is too broad a question, but what is the Turkish government doing on my computer and should I get rid of the embassy they've installed in my computer?

I am particularly leery, as apparently there is a "Turkish Crime Family" making threats about Apple accounts which they are claiming will happen this April 7, 2017.

FWIW: macOS Sierra 10.12.4, mid-2012 MacBook Air

Best Answer

Per this list of "trusted root certificates in iOS 9" from Apple it seems this is just one of many of the trusted root authorities around the globe. While this is for iOS and not macOS, which you're asking about, I'd assume Apple would keep parity on these OS's.

If you were to untrust them I'd imagine some part of the internet (however small) may stop validating SSL certs on your machine.

Edit: Here's another list specific to macOS, straight from Apple.

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