Poland’s state registry temporarily blocked by cyber incident
A suspected cyberattack disrupted Poland’s state registry systems on Wednesday, hampering access to key government services, local media reported.
The incident temporarily blocked access to the country’s PESEL registry, a central database that stores personal information such as names, birthdates and addresses, and is used to verify identities across healthcare, taxation, and other public services.
Poland’s digital ministry confirmed the disruption but did not specify the cause. The ministry stated that while access to some services was affected, no data had been compromised. PESEL assigns a unique number to all Polish citizens and foreign residents.
Local media cited a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which hackers overwhelm systems with fake traffic to render them inaccessible. The identity of the perpetrators remains unknown.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated that Polish cyberdefence teams regularly repel attempts to disrupt government systems, noting that “Poland is one of the most attacked countries in the world,” with many attacks originating from Russia. He assured that no sensitive data was exposed in this latest incident.
The outage affected several digital services reliant on state registry data, including the mObywatel app used for identity and vehicle information, as well as Poland’s online tax reporting systems, which coincided with the country’s tax filing deadline.
Cyberattacks on state registries have become increasingly common in Eastern Europe. For instance, Ukrainian registry infrastructure was breached in December, disabling services for weeks, while Slovakia’s land registry was hit by a severe cyberattack in January.
Key Points
- A cyberattack temporarily blocked Poland’s PESEL registry, affecting access to vital government services.
- The digital ministry reported no data compromise despite service disruptions.
- Local media linked the incident to a DDoS attack, and the attackers’ identity remains unknown.
- The outage notably impacted services like mObywatel and online tax systems, coinciding with a crucial filing deadline.
- Poland faces numerous cyberattacks, often attributed to Russian sources, highlighting a regional trend of cyber threats.
Why should I read this?
If you’ve got an interest in how cyber threats can disrupt vital public services, this article is a must-read! It gives insight into the challenges Poland is facing with cyberattacks and reinforces the ongoing battle against such disruptions—they’re not going away anytime soon! So save yourself the hassle and check out the details we’ve outlined.