Since late November 2020, there have already been more than a dozen attempts to take over email or social media accounts belonging to politicians. Recently, the Chief of the Chancellery of Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk, has fallen victim to hackers. Experts stressed that the main goal of cybercriminals was to sow disinformation.
A spokesman for the minister coordinator of special services Stanisław Żaryn said the special services are analysing the events described in Minister Michał Dworczyk’s statement regarding the hacking attack on his and his wife’s accounts. A report on the matter was received by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) on Tuesday.
Dworczyk wrote in a statement that relevant state services have been informed following reports that he and his wife’s email inbox and their social media accounts were hacked. He assured that the email box subject to the hacking attack had not contained information of a classified or proprietary nature. He also claimed that the statement posted on his wife’s social media account “is fabricated and contains false content”.
Dworczyk assessed that “it can be said with certainty that the purpose of this type of cyberattacks is disinformation, and therefore the relevant Polish special services are conducting all necessary explanatory activities”.
CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team) is a computer security incident response team. NASK (Research and Academic Computer Network) is one of the national centres investigating incidents such as the recent case of hacking of email and social media accounts of the Chief of the Chancellery of Prime Minister Michał Dworczyk and his wife.
– CSIRT NASK is involved in the investigation of such cases, in close coordination and cooperation with other national-level CSIRT teams and with the Government Representative for Cyber Security in the Prime Minister’s Office – said Przemysław Jaroszewski, the Head of CERT Poland, CSIRT NASK.
NASK’s CSIRT, which investigates intrusions into the public domain, previously reported that the seized social media accounts could be used to share false information related to Poland’s relations with its NATO allies, as well as information of a social and moral nature, stirring up controversy and polarizing opinions.