Number of hacking attacks on Poland has increased by 200% since the beginning of the year

Poland is experiencing nearly 1,800 attacks per week - an increase of more than 60% in one quarter, according to experts at cyber security firm Check Point Software Technologies. Since the beginning of 2024, the number of cyber attacks on Poland has increased by 200%.

Every week, Polish organisations are attacked on average 1,754 times, while institutions in Hungary or Germany are attacked 1,000 times. The most frequently attacked sectors of the Polish economy continue to be institutions of state administration and the military (over 1 600) and public utilities, it was reported.

"These are key enterprises, which are the basic pillars of any state's organisation. Hence the high level of interest in these very sectors," commented Check Point Software's director in Poland Wojciech Głażewski.

The situation is also confirmed by the Ministry of Defence's data, which shows that there were 5,000 attacks on military networks in 2023 alone. Meanwhile, information revealed a few days ago by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitalisation Krzysztof Gawkowski shows that Poland is the most attacked EU country today. According to statements by government representatives, all indications are that the majority of these attacks come from Russia and Belarus, it was stressed.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Digitalisation put the number of interventions undertaken by Polish services at 600-700 per day. This is a 100% increase compared to 2023 and a 400% increase compared to 2022. Check Point Software's analysis shows that only since the beginning of 2024, the number of cyber attacks on Poland has increased by nearly 200% (from 890 in January 2024 to 1,754 in June).

Check Point Research analysts point out that cyber espionage campaigns orchestrated by the Russian-linked TAG-70 group (also known as Winter Vivern), APT28, NoName 057(16), targeting government, military and national infrastructure entities, mainly in Georgia, Poland and Ukraine, as well as Central Asia and Europe, have been detected several times this year. Fortunately, Poland has so far fared very well against Russian cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, and its services are rated by the US as among the best in the world, it was also reported.

"Poland - as one of Ukraine's most active allies - has become the target of attacks by hacktivist groups who use cyberspace as another battleground. Their natural target is attacks on the state's critical infrastructure, information systems, aiming to sow unrest and disorganise society. Therefore, extreme caution must be exercised and the best security solutions and preventive safeguards used. Otherwise, there will be more and more similar attacks," Glazewski pointed out.

The vast majority of malicious files (70%) are distributed via email and a similar trend is observed worldwide. The most popular type of infected files in Polish networks were .exe files (81%), followed by .xls files (13%).
Cybercriminals are relentless in their actions, pulling ever more powerful guns against companies, government, non-profit organisations or individual users. The threat landscape, however, depends on the region. Experts consider Africa to be the continent most at risk, although organisations in Asia are also being attacked remarkably frequently, with an average of nearly 2,200 attacks per week.

Source: Check Point Software and ISBnews