Major Cyberattack on Poland Came from Russian Territory: Kaczynski

A recent “large scale” cyberattack targeting top Polish politicians was launched from Russia, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s governing right-wing party, said on Friday.

“Analyses by our services and the secret services of our allies allow us to unequivocally say that the cyberattack was carried out from the territory of the Russian Federation,” Kaczynski said in a statement.

“Poland’s top officials, ministers, lawmakers of various political stripes were the subject of the cyberattack,” he added. 

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki later said that Poland’s security services were working to “secure the many inboxes that fell victim to the external hack cooked up at the Kremlin.”

Lawmakers of the EU member state held a closed-door session on Wednesday to discuss what government spokesman Piotr Muller had called an “unprecedented” cyberattack. 

Last week, someone hacked into the private email account of Poland’s vaccination chief Michal Dworczyk. 

Some of the emails were later released on the Telegram encrypted messaging platform.

Dworczyk denied local media reports that his inbox contained secret official documents, saying some of the released information and emails were fabricated. 

“The syntax and language of the messages, as well as the metadata of the published files show that this material may have been prepared and compiled by Russian speakers,” he said last week.

Kaczynski, who is the head of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, said a goal of the cyberattack was to “destabilise our country.” 

Tensions have flared between Poland and Russia on several issues, including Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and support for Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

Related: Poland to Launch Cyberspace Defense Force