Ayyıldız Tim is a Turkish nationalist hacker group, founded on October 29, 2002, which identifies itself as Turkey's first cyber defense unit, operating with a virtual rank system. Assessed with high confidence to be state-sponsored by Turkey, the group is primarily motivated by patriotic and nationalistic ideals, conducting cyber-attacks against entities perceived as hostile to Turkish interests or critical of Turkey's political decisions. While initially known for website defacements and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, Ayyıldız Tim has evolved to include more sophisticated phishing campaigns and leverages social media for propaganda. The group operates under aliases such as CrescentandStar and Crescent and Star, and is distinct for its overt, politically charged hacktivism aiming to defend Turkey in the cyber domain.