Poland says it smashed gang of Russian and Belarusian saboteurs
Hackers wanted to gain access to information for blackmail, according to Warsaw.
Poland said Monday that it broke up a group of digital saboteurs linked to Belarusian and Russian special services.
Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said that these services have been active in Poland, trying to gain unauthorized access to information and then use it to blackmail individuals and institutions, constituting a “de facto cyber war.”
Their hackers tried to attack the Polish Anti-Doping Agency, which could have been used as an entry point to other Polish institutions in local government or state companies related to national security, Gawkowski said.
According to the minister, the number of cybersecurity incidents has doubled in the past year, but with the help of the interior ministry and the coordinated efforts of other agencies and the military, they successfully thwarted the August attack.
Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak added that the Polish government is now working to update regulations on electronic communications. “We also want the Polish authorities to know everything about and control all telecommunications transit through Poland,” he said.
Hackers from countries such as Russia and China have repeatedly in 2024 breached systems across the EU and beyond. Poland previously said it was also targeted by the Russian-controlled hacking group Fancy Bear, which attacked German and Czech information systems, but they withstood the assault.
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