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WARSAW (Reuters) - The IT systems of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform party have been hit by a cyberattack, he said on Wednesday, amid growing concern that foreign actors may try to disrupt the country's elections this year.
Poland has been on high alert for foreign interference and sabotage ahead of a presidential election scheduled for May, as it says its role in helping Ukraine has made it a key target for Moscow's security services. Russia has dismissed that claim.
"Cyberattack on (Civic) Platform's IT system," Tusk wrote on social media platform X. "Foreign interference in elections begins. Services point to an eastern trace." He did not elaborate.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on X that the incident was serious and that security services were working intensively on it.
The head of Tusk's office, Jan Grabiec, was quoted by state news agency PAP as saying that according to services analysing the attack "(there are) specific data indicating the method of operation of the services from the East."
Asked by PAP whether he meant Russian or Belarusian services Grabiec was cited as saying that he did not want to speak on behalf of the Polish security services but that "very often (Eastern) services infiltrate on behalf of the Russian services - Belarusians act or Belarusian data is also used to mask."
A journalist from private broadcaster Radio Zet said on X that unknown actors had taken over the account of a local Civic Platform activist and then sent out emails with malicious software from it, one of which went to a parliamentary account.
Opposition lawmaker and former deputy minister of justice Michal Wos was quoted by Radio Zet as saying: "This is clearly Donald Tusk's prelude to the Romanian or French scenario, they are preparing for the presidential elections."
In January, Gawkowski said Poland had identified a Russian group tasked with influencing the Polish elections via disinformation and stoking instability.
Warsaw said in March that there had been a cyberattack on the Polish space agency. In 2024 Poland said the state news agency had likely been hit by a Russian cyberattack.
Warsaw and its allies have also alleged that Moscow is behind acts of arson and sabotage around Europe. Russia dismisses these claims.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Karol Badohal; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
