A powerful attack on Poland's energy sector. Gawkowski: Russian sabotage was supposed to lead to a blackout

Everything indicates that December's unsuccessful attacks on energy infrastructure were Russian sabotage intended to destabilize the situation in Poland, said Krzysztof Gawkowski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs on Tuesday. He added that the aim of the attacks was to lead to a blackout.

Minister of Energy Miłosz Motyka announced earlier that in the last days of 2025 there was an unsuccessful cyber attack on a number of electricity producing installations.

– Everything indicates that we are dealing with Russian sabotagebecause it should be called by its name, who was supposed to destabilize the situation in Poland – Gawkowski said on Radio RMF FM.

He added that “we have well-prepared institutions” and therefore “we should not panic.”

Goal: Destabilization and darkness

It was the largest attack on energy infrastructure in years with a clear goal: to lead to a blackout, Gawkowski noted.

According to Motyka, at the end of December there was an attempt in Poland to disrupt communication between generation installations and network operators. The object of the attack was one heat and power plant and many individual renewable energy sources throughout the country.

– This type of attack has never happened before. The attack failed, but it was dangerous. For the first time, they were attacked at the same time in different places. We managed to respond effectively, emphasized the Minister of Energy.

Last week, the Minister of Energy also said that due to repeated cyber attacks, in 2026 the ministry will invest more and modernize the Polish energy infrastructure in the cyber sphere to “repel these attacks even more effectively.”

Investments in defense and stopping the hacker

Last Wednesday, the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime (CBZC) announced in a press release the arrest of a resident of Szczecin suspected of breaking the IT security of “one of the largest energy companies in the country” and interfering with the data contained therein.

During operational activities, investigators from CBZC in Krakow determined that at the turn of August and September 2025, the man repeatedly attacked protected systems. This also applies to the IT infrastructure of one of the largest energy companies in Poland.

CBZC reported that the suspect, acting without authorization, interfered with customers' data, modified their bank account numbers and entered changed information into the system so that it looked authentic. As a result, funds from overpayments were transferred to the accounts indicated by him.

According to information provided by CBZC, in December the suspect was brought to the District Prosecutor's Office in Kraków, where he was charged. The man admitted to the crimes he was accused of and provided extensive explanations. He faces up to five years in prison. (PAP)

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