Poland foiled cyberattack on big city’s water supply, deputy PM says

WARSAW (Reuters): A large Polish city could have had its water supply cut off on Wednesday as a result of a cyberattack, a deputy prime minister said after the intrusion was foiled.

In an interview with news portal Onet on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who is also digital affairs minister, did not specify who was behind the attack or which city was targeted.

Poland has said that its role as a hub for aid to Ukraine makes it a target for Russian cyberattacks and acts of sabotage. Gawkowski has described Poland in the past as the “main target” for Russia among NATO countries.

Gawkowski told Onet that the cyberattack could have meant there would be no water in one of Poland’s big cities.

“At the last moment we managed to see to it that when the attack began, our services had found out about it and we shut everything down. We managed to prevent the attack.”

He said Poland manages to thwart 99 percent of cyberattacks.

Gawkowski last year that Poland would spend over 3 billion zlotys ($800 million) to boost cybersecurity after the state news agency PAP was hit by what authorities said was likely to have been a Russian cyberattack.

The digital affairs ministry did not immediately respond to an email requesting further details.

On Wednesday Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has warned that Russia is trying to drive a wedge between Warsaw and Kyiv, said that a young Ukrainian man had been detained for acts of sabotage on behalf of foreign intelligence services, including writing graffiti insulting Poles.

PAP reported on Thursday that a 17-year-old Ukrainian man detained, among other things, for desecrating a monument to Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists in World War Two has been charged with participating in an organized criminal group aimed at committing crimes against Poland.