Polish news sites targeted by DDoS attacks.

Polish News Websites Hit by Suspected Russian DDoS Attacks

Government Suspects Russian Hacking Groups

Several Polish news websites were hit by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that the government suspects could be the work of Russian hacking groups, according to the digitalisation minister. Warsaw has positioned itself as one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since Russia invaded the country, and Poland says it frequently faces Russian attempts to destabilise the situation in the country. Moscow has consistently denied that it carries out hacking operations.

How DDoS Attacks Work

DDoS attacks work by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers in a relatively unsophisticated bid to knock them offline.

Immediate Action Taken

“Having information that such attacks are being prepared, we immediately informed all interested editorial offices so that they had the opportunity to react to this situation,” said Janusz Cieszynski, quoted by state-run news agency PAP.

Confirmation of Attack

The ddos-attacks/” title=”Polish news sites targeted by DDoS attacks.”>websites affected included those of daily newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita and Super Express. Wyborcza confirmed on Twitter that it had been the victim of an attack, as did news website wPolityce.pl.

Denial from Russia

The Russian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

• Reporting by Alan Charlish and Karol Badohal
• Editing by Alex Richardson