Belarusian and Russian Special Services Are Waging Cyberwar Against Poland, Authorities Say

Polish authorities accuse Belarusian and Russian special services of attacking numerous people and institutions in an attempt to gain information and use it for blackmail.

Attacks against companies and private organizations are a lot more public than attacks against official institutions, mostly because governments don’t always want to reveal that they were attacked. But the situation can become dire enough to force authorities into letting people know what is happening behind the curtain.

It’s well-known that Russia has been waging a cyberwar against Ukraine alongside the physical invasion of the country. But the same Russian special services are going after other countries as well, especially those who helped Ukraine resist.

“It began with POLADA (Polish Anti-Doping Agency), which (…) the services were trying to use as an entry point to other Polish institutions in local government, state companies that were connected to national security,” said Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski according to a PAP report.

Gawkowski and Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak also mentioned an incident from May when the Polish Press Agency (PAP) was hit by a cyberattack. This would not be so out of the ordinary if the hackers didn’t actually publish two fabricated reports informing about a partial mobilization in Poland that were quickly retracted.

In fact, soon after that attack, Polish authorities released a report stating that they’ve observed a large-scale malware campaign targeting Polish government institutions.

“Based on technical indicators and similarity to attacks described in the past (e.g. on Ukrainian entities), the campaign can be associated with the APT28 activity set, which is associated with Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU),” reads the May report.

It very likely that these types of attackers have continued since May and that they won’t stop any time soon, especially since they seem to be directed by Russian special services.