Poland’s Tusk says Russian hackers attacked party websites before election

Donald Tusk
Reuters

Two days before Poland’s presidential election, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Russian hackers launched attacks on the websites of parties in his ruling coalition.

The frontrunner is Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a leading member of Tusk’s Civic Platform party.

“Two days before the elections, a group of Russian hackers operating on Telegram attacked the websites of the Civic Platform,” Tusk wrote on X Friday afternoon. The websites of the Left and the Polish People’s Party (PSL) were also targeted, he added, with authorities working intensively to stop the ongoing attack.

Polish officials are also investigating paid political ads on Facebook, flagged by the state research institute NASK, which identified possible election interference. NASK reported the misinformation to Meta, which removed the ads.

“Ad accounts involved in the campaign spent more on political content than any election committee in the past seven days,” NASK said. The ads appeared designed to support one candidate while discrediting others.

In late 2024, Polish authorities reported up to 1,000 Russian and Belarusian cyberattacks daily, targeting government agencies — linked to Poland’s support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

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