A December cyberattack targeting Poland's energy infrastructure was attributed to Russian government hackers, with local media reporting potential outages for over 500,000 homes. The incident, which occurred on December 29 and 30, involved attempts to disrupt two heat and power plants and communication networks tied to renewable energy sources, according to Polish Energy Minister Milosz Motyka.
Motyka labeled this incident as the “strongest attack” in years, while the Polish government pointed fingers at Moscow for orchestrating the hack. Cybersecurity firm ESET identified the malware used in the attack as DynoWiper, a type known for permanently erasing data. ESET linked the malware with “medium confidence” to the hacking group Sandworm, associated with Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, citing similarities with previous attacks on Ukraine.
This incident echoes a significant attack from 2015, which affected Ukraine's energy sector and resulted in widespread outages. Following the attempted breach, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the nation’s cybersecurity measures were effective, ensuring no critical infrastructure was compromised.