Cyberattack: New Details: This is how the attack on the Polish energy grid went down
In late December 2025, Russian actors attempted to disable the Polish energy grid with coordinated cyberattacks. New findings show that the case was bigger than assumed.
A cyberattack targeting Poland's energy sector could have left nearly 550,000 citizens without heating and electricity by the end of 2025, according to new details revealed from the incident. In a coordinated effort, cybercriminals targeted over 30 solar parks and heating power plants on December 29th, manipulating software, industrial control systems, and deleting data.
However, the attack was thwarted; Digital Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated that they were "close to a blackout" in the aftermath. The EU has since officially blamed Russia for the energy infrastructure attack within Poland and imposed sanctions. A recent report from the state's cybersecurity department, Cert Polska, commissioned by the Polish Digital Ministry, has uncovered additional information about the incident.
Cert Polska's head, Marcin Dudek, presented the findings from a 19-page report at the Defcon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. The researchers not only classified a previously unknown incident at another Polish heating power plant as part of the cyberattack but also reconstructed how the attackers moved through the energy companies' IT and control systems over several months of forensic work.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
