Polish Space Agency Says It Was Hit by Cyberattack
The Polish Space Agency (POLSA) has confirmed that it recently suffered a cyberattack, forcing the agency to pull its IT infrastructure offline. The news was announced via an X post, in which POLSA stated that relevant authorities have already been notified and that the situation is being analyzed.
"There has been a cybersecurity incident at POLSA," the machine-translated X post reads. "The relevant services and institutions have been informed. The situation is being analyzed. In order to secure data after the hack, the POLSA network was immediately disconnected from the Internet. We will keep you updated."
The short announcement left plenty of room for speculation, with some media outlets discussing the possibility of a ransomware attack. After all, it's standard practice in such attacks to disconnect affected infrastructure from the internet to prevent data leaks and sever connections to any persistence mechanisms.
However, an anonymous source told The Register that POLSA's emails were compromised, and that staff was instructed to use phones for communication instead of emails. This news was later confirmed by Poland's digitalization minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who revealed that the Polish government is engaged in "intensive operational activities" to understand who the attackers are.
Gawkowski also announced that POLSA is receiving assistance from the country's two computer security incident response teams, CSIRT NASK and CSIRT MON. The identity of the threat actors or the goal of the attack remains unknown at this time.
It's worth noting that Warsaw has repeatedly accused Moscow of attempting to destabilize Poland due to its military support for Ukraine, which is currently engaged in a war with Russia. However, Russia has denied all allegations, according to Reuters reports.
POLSA played a significant role in supporting Poland's involvement in European Space Agency (ESA) projects, including participation in the ExoMars mission and development of satellite technologies. The agency also contributed to launching Poland's first scientific satellites, such as PW-Sat and BRITE-PL, which focused on space debris mitigation and stellar research.
The incident has raised concerns about the cybersecurity posture of the Polish Space Agency and its ability to protect sensitive information. As the situation continues to unfold, it remains unclear what the attackers' goals were or who they are. One thing is certain, however: the threat to national security and space exploration cannot be taken lightly.
About the Author
Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). With over a decade of experience in the field, he has written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans.