Poland avoids blackout as PM blames Russia-linked attackers for massive cyberattack
Poland is recovering from a cyberattack that nearly knocked out the country’s power grid. PM Donald Tusk has blamed groups linked to Russian intelligence services and is preparing additional defenses.
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Poland is recovering from a cyberattack that nearly knocked out the country’s power grid. PM Donald Tusk has blamed groups linked to Russian intelligence services and is preparing additional defenses.
On December 29th and 30th, cyberattacks targeted Poland’s energy infrastructure, including two combined heat and power plants and the system that manages renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and photovoltaic farms.
The country’s government acknowledged that the coordinated incident brought the nation close to a blackout. However, the attack was ultimately repelled.
Had the cyberattack been successful, 500,000 people would have been left without heating, Prime Minister Donald Tusk estimates, according to Cyberdefence24.
The Euronews report details that the attackers, using BlackEnergy and KillDisk malware, took remote control of SCADA systems, switched off electrical substations, and paralyzed customer service centers simultaneously, leaving 230,000 households without electric power for hours.
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“There are many indications that these attacks were prepared by groups directly linked to Russian intelligence services,” Tusk said after the meeting with ministers and other heads of institutions responsible for Poland’s energy security.
However, the PM also acknowledged that there was no definitive evidence to identify the attackers.
The government states that “Poland successfully defended itself” and avoided negative consequences, such as a blackout. However, the incident, which posed a risk to the state's security, was “taken very seriously.”
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“The systems we have in Poland today have proven effective. Critical infrastructure, i.e., transmission networks and the elements that determine the security of the entire system, have never been threatened,” noted the Prime Minister.
Poland is preparing additional security measures, including more stringent requirements for risk management, IT, and operational technology system protection, and incident response. A new bill is underway to help equip Polish institutions with tools to protect the grid.
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