Polish Pilecki Institute Websites Hacked With Russian Propaganda
Hackers breached the websites of the Witold Pilecki Institute in Poland, along with its branches in Berlin and Augustów, posting Russian propaganda and anti-Ukrainian narratives. The institute announced on Friday that its IT team blocked the overnight attack, took the sites offline, and secured the archives. A security review is currently underway. The incident follows a separate, massive cyber…
Hackers infiltrated the websites of the Polish Witold Pilecki Institute, an organization dedicated to documenting Nazi and Communist-era crimes, and replaced its content with Russian propaganda promoting anti-Ukrainian narratives, according to the institute. The intrusion occurred late Thursday night, affecting the main website as well as branches in Berlin and Augustów, Poland.
The institute issued a statement on Friday detailing the breach. "The published content was directed against Polish history and intensified anti-Ukrainian narratives," it said. The institute's IT team managed to contain the attack and bring the affected websites back online. "All archives are safe," the statement assured. An ongoing security review aims to restore full access to the websites as quickly as possible.
The Pilecki Institute has long been fighting disinformation and researching totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, collaborating with Ukrainian archives and institutions. Founded in 2018, the institute is named after Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who entered the Auschwitz concentration camp to gather intelligence, later executed by Poland's communist authorities in 1948.
This attack follows a recent major cyber breach, where nearly 19 million people's medical records were stolen from MyDr, a leading electronic medical-record provider in Poland. Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested the breach was financially motivated, with hackers potentially seeking ransom.
Written by urgent.news from Kyiv Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.