Poland’s government is substantially increasing its cybersecurity budget to a record €1bn this year, a direct response to a rise in Russian sabotage attempts targeting key public services such as hospitals and urban water supplies. According to Dariusz Standerski, the deputy minister for digital affairs, Poland confronts a staggering 20 to 50 attempts to compromise its critical infrastructure on a daily basis, with the majority of these attacks being successfully thwarted.
While most cyber threats are neutralized, a few have succeeded, primarily against hospitals. These breaches have forced several healthcare facilities to temporarily suspend their operations and have resulted in the theft of medical data. This new spending bill raises the country’s cybersecurity budget from €600mn in 2024 to €1bn this year. Officials in Warsaw state that Poland is the most frequent target of Russian cyberattacks within the European Union, despite successfully defending against approximately 99 percent of them.
One of the most significant recent incidents was a Russian-backed hacking attempt last month that aimed to shut down the water supply of one of Poland’s ten largest cities. Standerski confirmed that the perpetrators managed to infiltrate the IT network of the facility but were stopped before they could cut off water to the city’s residents. He declined to specify the location for security reasons, noting that the operation was one of the most severe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In response to this growing threat, the government is allocating €80mn this month to fortify the cyber defenses of water management systems. This funding is part of a larger initiative to secure all public infrastructure, including the systems used by Poland’s 2,400 local administrations. Standerski welcomed the rare cross-party consensus on this issue, highlighting it as a significant achievement in the country’s highly polarized political environment. The prime minister also recently reported that a drone was neutralized over central Warsaw, leading to the arrest of two Belarusians.
Beyond cyber threats, Poland has also faced physical incursions. Last week, about 19 Russian drones violated its airspace, with some being shot down by Polish and Nato aircraft. This event marked the first time Nato forces have directly engaged with Russian assets since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski noted a growing threat from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, which has become a key source of GPS jamming for planes flying over the area. While Polish authorities don’t believe Russia is targeting specific aircraft, the jamming incidents are a serious form of general disruption.
Reference:
