The first level of Poland’s cyberterrorism alert (CRP), ALFA, was introduced on Tuesday will be enacted across the entire country until Jan. 23, the Ministry of Digitalization stated following PM Mateusz Morawiecki signing an ordinance concerning the matter.
The prime minister had consulted with the Minister of the Interior and the head of the Internal Security Agency prior to signing the document.
The Polish ministry explained that the alarm is meant to be a preventive measure introduced due to recent cyberattacks carried out against Ukrainian government websites. The incident in Ukraine was the largest cyberattack in recent years and close to 70 government websites were blocked.
As a result of the attack, access to the Ukrainian online government service for citzens was also cut off and malware was used to destroy data on infected devices.
An ALFA-CRP alert level is introduced in Poland in the case of a terrorist threat which pertains to public administration information and communications technology (ICT) systems which are a part of critical infrastructure.
The introduction of this alert level means that Poland’s public administration is obliged to carry out increased security surveillance of ICT systems to ensure electronic communication security.
Alarm levels are introduced, changed or withdrawn by the prime minister through an ordinance. There are four levels of the alarm: ALFA, BRAVO, CHARLIE and DELTA.
The previous time a CRP alarm level was enacted was during the UN Digital Summit in Katowice in December 2021.
