The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, responsible for monitoring threats to Germany’s democratic order and counterintelligence activities, warned of the threat of Russian hacker attacks against European Union countries and NATO bloc targets. The office’s website published this warning in a post on Monday, September 9.
The post states that the office, together with international partners, is warning of the current threat of cyberattacks from unit 29155 of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formerly known as the GRU. The post also contains a link to a message from September 5, in which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, along with American intelligence services, informs about Russian cyber activity worldwide. This message also notes that unit 29155 is known for its involvement in sabotage acts and assassination attempts. In 2018, this unit faced accusations of poisoning double agent Sergei Skripal, among other things. GRU Colonel Skripal defected to British intelligence, was exposed, and was released as part of a spy swap in 2010.
Poland Foils Joint Russian-Belarusian Cyberattack
Polish law enforcement agencies discovered a group of hackers preparing a joint sabotage operation between Russia and Belarus with the goal of destabilizing Poland. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitalization announced this in Warsaw on Monday, September 9. According to him, the hackers, operating from Belarus, hacked the resources of Polish government institutions and state companies that fulfill military orders.
The cyber intruders were tasked with “extorting information, blackmailing individuals and organizations, and conducting actual cyber warfare,” the minister continued. He cited a hacker attack on Poland’s anti-doping agency POLADA as an example.
Krzysztof Gawkowski did not specify how many people were in the group or the number of detainees. He added that since the beginning of the year, 400,000 suspected cyberattacks have been recorded—significantly more than the entire year of 2023 (370,000).
Cybercriminal activity resulted in a data leak from POLADA on August 9. The agency turned to the Central Cybercrime Bureau, the Data Protection Office, the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, and CERT Polska—the Computer Emergency Response Team.
Warsaw plans to allocate a record 186 billion zlotys (€48.5 billion) in 2025 to strengthen national defense. According to Poland’s Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Wzitek, spending on these purposes will increase to 4.7 percent of GDP. According to this indicator, Poland ranks first among EU countries, noted AP.
