Poland ranks third in Europe in terms of cyberattacks sponsored by other countries

In 2025, Poland will be the third country in Europe most frequently attacked by cybercriminals sponsored by foreign countries – according to a report by Microsoft. Our country also ranked 10th in the world in terms of the number of cyberattacks directed from Russia.

According to the “Microsoft Digital Defense” report, this year Poland ranks third in Europe in terms of cyberattacks sponsored by other countries. Ukraine came first and Great Britain came second. Poland also ranked 10th on the continent and 27th in the world in terms of the number of users affected by cyberattacks.

At the same time, Poland is the tenth country in the world most frequently attacked by cybercriminals from Russia (3 percent of attacks).

Russians most often targeted the United States (20%), Great Britain (12%) and Ukraine (11%). The next places were taken by Germany (6%), Belgium (5%), and Estonia, France and the Netherlands (3% each). Experts emphasized that apart from Ukraine, the remaining nine targets are in NATO, and the number of Russian cyberattacks on the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance has increased this year. by 25 percent compared to 2024.

According to the report, Russian cybercriminals focused on government and scientific institutions and non-governmental organizations in Europe and North America. According to experts, this means that the mentioned targets have the greatest intelligence value for Russia in the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Other countries apart from Russia that are particularly active in the area of ​​cybercrime include: China, Iran and North Korea.

As Microsoft pointed out in a press release, apart from the government, scientific and non-governmental sectors, cybercriminals are increasingly attacking smaller companies and sectors such as:

• power engineering,
• defense industry,
• production,
• transport
• IT.

Over the last 12 months, both cybercriminals and security teams have begun to intensively use the possibilities of generative artificial intelligence – it was emphasized. Cybercriminals use AI to automate phishing campaigns (fake links – PAP), scale social engineering activities, create synthetic content, detect vulnerabilities (vulnerabilities – PAP) faster and design adaptable malware.

On the other hand, teams responsible for security in organizations use AI, among others. to detect threats, identify phishing attempts, or protect the most vulnerable users.

The Microsoft Digital Defense report is based on security reports from Microsoft customers, partners and platforms around the world. Data was collected from June 1, 2024 to the end of July 2025 (PAP)

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