Poland's special services exposed a network of Russian and Belarusian hackers who intended to penetrate the systems of state authorities and local self-government of the Republic of Poland with the aim of stealing information and further blackmail.
Points of attention
- Poland's special services detected and thwarted a group of Russian and Belarusian hackers attempting to breach the systems of state authorities and local self-government in Poland.
- The cyberattacks were aimed at obtaining sensitive information for blackmail and creating political, military, and economic chaos within Poland.
- The number of cyber incidents in Poland has surged, with over 400,000 attacks registered and a 100% increase compared to the previous year.
- Efforts to combat cyber threats in Poland have resulted in the detection and arrest of individuals planning sabotage, highlighting the need for legislative amendments to enhance cybersecurity measures.
- A Russian spy network in Poland was uncovered, focused on disseminating disinformation and promoting Russian narratives to harm EU countries and structures, particularly targeting Ukraine.
A network of Russian and Belarusian cyber saboteurs was exposed in Poland
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digitization of Poland Krzysztof Hawkowski and Minister of Internal Affairs Tomasz Siemoniak stated this during a joint press conference.
"In recent days... we managed to expose a group that had specific goals in Poland and operated from a specific location," Havkowski noted.
He emphasized that the purpose of the activities of the Russian and Belarusian special services in Poland was to gather information for the purpose of further blackmail and, in fact, conduct cyberwar.
It all started with Polada (Polish Anti-Doping Agency — ed.) as part of a wider operational game of special services, whose task was to find ways to penetrate other Polish institutions — both at the level of local self-government and at the level of state-owned companies related to the security sector.
Krzysztof Havkowski
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digitization of Poland
According to him, these institutions were warned by special services. Thanks to operational actions, it was possible to avoid data theft.
Hawkowski explained that the goal of the cyber attacks was "to cause political, military and economic paralysis in Poland."
The official said that in the first half of 2024, more than 400,000 cyberattacks were registered, and during this time, Polish services took about 100,000 actions to find out who was behind it. Compared to last year, the number of cyber incidents increased by 100% — 370,000 of them were recorded in the entire previous year.
In turn, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland reminded that since January, the Polish special services have detained more than 10 people who were planning sabotage in the Republic of Poland.
According to him, it is necessary to make changes to the national legislation on combating cyber threats, in particular, to provide for the obligation of operators operating in Poland to store data on servers in the country, and not abroad.
We would also like that everything related to telecommunication transit through Poland should not be beyond the knowledge and control of the Polish authorities.
Russian spies in Poland: what is known
The Russian spy network in Poland promoted Russian narratives in Europe.
This was announced on March 28 by Jacek Dobzynskiy, the spokesman for the coordinator of special services.
According to him, the task of the Russian agency was to popularize Russia's policy in Europe and harm EU countries and structures primarily through the spread of disinformation, including about Russia's war against Ukraine. The goal was, in particular, to discredit Ukraine.
In its activities, the network used the Voice-of-Europe.eu information site. Pro-Russian articles, interviews and comments on the international situation were published there.
More on the topic
- Category
- World
- Publication date
- Додати до обраного
