Pierluigi Paganini
September 10, 2024
Poland security services announced they have thwarted a cyber operation orchestrated by Russia and Belarus, aimed at destabilizing the country, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for digital affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski.
“The Belarusian and Russian foreign services… had a specific goal – to extort information, to blackmail individuals and institutions and to wage a de facto cyberwar,” said Gawkowski.
Nation-state actors targeted government institutions and state-owned companies involved in military contracts. The operation is the response to the support offered by Poland to Ukraine immediately after the invasion of the country. According to the Minister, the cyberattacks against Polish organizations and institutions have doubled since last year.
“Poland has registered up to 1,000 online attacks daily targeting government institutions and agencies, officials said, linking them to the country’s support for neighboring Ukraine in its 2 1/2-year war against Russia’s invasion.” reported the Associated Press.
In the first half of 2024, over 400,000 attempted or successful cyberattacks were recorded, surpassing the total of 370,000 attacks from the entire previous year.
Gawkowski revealed that the operation aimed at stealing data for blackmail purposes.
The Polish government plans to introduce new legislation aimed at strengthening the country’s resilience to cyber attacks. The government plans to require internet operators to store data on servers within Poland to enhance protection and allow better oversight by national authorities.
In August 2023, Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) and national police launched an investigation into a hacking attack on the state’s railway network. According to the Polish Press Agency, the attack disrupted the traffic overnight.
Stanisław Zaryn, deputy coordinator of special services, told the news agency that Polish authorities are investigating an unauthorized usage of the system used to control rail traffic.
“For the moment, we are ruling nothing out,” Stanislaw Zaryn told PAP. “We know that for some months there have been attempts to destabilise the Polish state,” he added. “Such attempts have been undertaken by the Russian Federation in conjunction with Belarus.”
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s railway system represented a crucial transit infrastructure for Western countries’ support of Ukraine.
Zaryn explained that the attacks are part of a broader activity conducted by Russia to destabilize Poland.
Early 2023, Poland’s security agency warned pro-Russian hackers are continuously targeting the state since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
Poland is in a strategic position and is considered a key Ukraine’s ally, it continues to provide support to Ukrainian refugees aligned with NATO’s strategy.
In July 2022, pro-Russia Killnet hacker crew hit multiple government resources in Poland including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senate, Border Control and the Police.
In April 2022, the same group claimed the responsibility for DDoS attacks on the sites of institutions in states such as the USA, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and also on NATO sites.
In October 2022, Microsoft reported that a new strain of ransomware, tracked as Prestige ransomware, is being used in attacks aimed at transportation and logistics organizations in Ukraine and Poland.
Microsoft pointed out that this campaign was not connected to any of the 94 currently active ransomware activity groups that it is tracking.
The campaign shares victimology with recent operations conducted by Russia-linked threat actors, the IT giant attributed it to the Russia-linked Iridium APT.
Poland’s security agency also reports the case of the November attack on the Polish parliament that was attributed to the pro-Russian group NoName057(16).
The attack was a response to the adoption by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of a resolution designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
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