Polish intelligence services: Thousands of Polish citizens affected by massive hacker attack

Former and current government officials, MPs, senators, and local government leaders are among those targeted by a major hack attack, according to a new report from Poland’s intelligence agencies.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shared the report compiled by the Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service concerning the recent massive hacker attack carried out against Polish citizens.

“The attack affected people from different political spheres, as well as media workers and non-government organizations,” he wrote in a social media post.

The prime minister emphasized that former and current government officials, MPs, senators and local government leaders were all targeted by the latest attack.

Morawiecki added that due to the situation, the government team for critical incidents has accepted a recommendation to limit the effects of the hacker attack against persons carrying out public functions. The first actions were initiated last Friday and will be continued this week. The main goal is to secure people who could have been victims of the attack.

The prime minister also attached the statement of the spokesman of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator, Stanisław Żaryn.

The statement revealed that the Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service found out that at least 4,350 email addresses belonging to Polish citizens or which function within Polish email servers were targeted by the UNC1151 group. Out of the 4,350 email addresses, over 100 belong to people who fulfil public functions.

It was emphasized that Polish intelligence services possess information which is indicative of the hackers’ association with the activity of Russian special services.

Minister Żaryn underlined that all current information and evidence points to UNC1151’s actions being part of the “Ghostwriter” operation whose goal was to destabilize the political situation in Central European countries. UNC1151 is believed to be a state-sponsored cyber-espionage group.

The issue of cyberattacks directed against Poland was publicized last week after evidence was released that the email account of Chief of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery Michał Dworczyk was hacked. No classified information was contained within Dworczyk’s email account.