Cyber-attacks are expression of Russian 'despair' says deputy minister

Alleged Russian cyber-attacks on a number of Polish news portals are a part of Russia's information war and are an expression of “despair and helplessness,” a Polish deputy digitalisation minister has said.

On Thursday morning, several Polish media websites fell victim to cyber-attacks, and some of the portals reported temporary difficulties with accessing pages.

Pawel Lewandowski, asked by PAP how it was known that cyber-attacks were carried out by Russia, said: "We are able to warn, check and see what is happening on the internet at a given moment. Where the various attack vectors come from, or who is a potential victim.

"At the moment, Poland, according to Microsoft's reports, is the most frequently attacked country when it comes to the cyber-sphere, and this is directly related to the actions of our eastern neighbour; with Russia's attack on Ukraine and the fact that we, as Poland, support this country," Lewandowski added.

So far the attacks have mainly targeted government websites, but this time they concerned popular news websites, he continued.

"Assaults on the websites of information portals are an obvious direction of attack for our opponent in the information war," he said. "They are also a certain expression, in my opinion, of despair and helplessness."

Stanislaw Zaryn, commissionaire for information-space security, said "the way they (hackers) operate corresponds to what the Russians are trying to do against Poland, i.e. use cyber tools to sow chaos and achieve certain information purposes against Poland."