European Central: Polish Politicians' E-mails Leaked By Russian App Telegram
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Poland’s intelligence agency has stated it has evidence Russia is responsible for targeting 4,350 email and social media accounts including accounts belonging to current and former politicians. At least 300 accounts were successfully hacked. A cybersecurity firm from the United States confirmed as well that the attacks originated from the UNC1151 group, a group associated with Russian special services. Poland in particular is a target from cyber-attacks from Russia due to Poland supporting sanctions on Russia in regard to the annexation of Crimea and supporting President Lukashenko of Belarus. The European Commission however is not yet willing to assign blame to Russia and states there is not enough evidence yet. Instead, the European Commission expressed solidarity with Poland and stresses the importance of fighting cybersecurity.
Information obtained from hacking email accounts has already been published on Telegram, a Russian app started by the political opposition. The information is published by two accounts on Telegram. One in Russian and one in Polish. The polish account is titled Poufna Rozmowa which translates to Confidential Information. Experts from the Computer Emergency Response Team for the EU institutions, bodies and agencies have found multiple Facebook accounts and one twitter account promoting the Telegram accounts. It is believed that some of the accounts were created primarily to advertise the Telegram accounts while other accounts were compromised. One example is the email hacks reveal correspondence taken from Michał Dworczyk email account regarding whether or not to use the military in response to Polish women protesting stricter legislation on abortions. Poland alleges that some of the emails are fabricated. Michał Dworczyk, a top aide to Prime Minister Morawiecki and member of the Polish Sejm (Parliament) has stated that it is possible up to 70,000 emails from his account were stolen. The pro-government media sources have attempted to remedy the situation by saying the email correspondence is a sign of the government doing the right thing and showing constraint since it chose not to deploy the military in response to protestors. Politicians also allege that some of the information published by the Telegram accounts is falsified. Andrzej Kozłowski from the Kościuszko Institute, an NGO that focuses on security issues seems to support this by saying it is common for legitimate and falsified information to be mixed. Due to legitimate information being mixed with fabricated information, this risks hysteria over statements that Polish politicians may not have even written.
The Polish opposition is furious that government officials used private email accounts instead of their official government email accounts to send sensitive information and are demanding the resignation of Dworczyk and Morawiecki. The polish opposition argues this is reasonable due to ministers who resigned after conversations were leaked from the Civic Platform Party in 2015. Morawiecki argues that the politicians are victims and should not be blamed for the hacking. The hacking of emails for Polish Politicians has the potential to make the Polish government look bad internationally as well. There are fears that Poland’s relationship with other countries will be damaged based on information that may be released from hacked accounts. Poland has already been criticized for actions of its government that are alleged to make the government more authoritarian and less democratic.
The relationship between the two nations was already tense before the hacking for multiple reasons. In December of 2019, Putin appears to blame Poland for World War II. Russia’s Duma (Parliament) wants Poland to apologize for initiating World War II. In Reality, the Soviet Union agreed with Poland to divide Poland with the Nazis. The eastern territory of Poland that the Soviet Union seized is now part of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus. The Soviets also ethnically cleansed Eastern Poland. The Soviet Union nor modern-day Russia has ever acknowledged the fact that it seized Polish territory, but instead viewed it as assisting. It is important however that during the Gorbachev era the Soviet Union apologized for the ethnic cleansing, however, for the past several decades Russia has been working to change the narrative. Starting in 2009, it is possible to see people defending the Soviet-Nazi alliance in academic literature. Putin is attempting to reframe history and justify Russian authoritarianism as helping save Russia. The problem is, World War II ended in 1945 meanwhile Putin continues to threaten democracy not only in Russia but elsewhere as well, apparent in Poland from the hacking of private emails belonging to Polish politicians.
Along with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are all potential targets of cyber attacks from Russia. Relations between the three Baltic states and Russia are still tense since they declared their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Lithuania has released information regarding hackers with ties to Russian intelligence which last year targeted Lithuanian officials. The Russian hackers tried to use Lithuania’s technology infrastructure in order to target nations developing a Covid-19 vaccine. State Security Department head Darius Jauniskis informed the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) about the matter and believes Russian Intelligence is a threat to Lithuanian national security. A report published by Estonia’s foreign intelligence agency believes Russia is trying to exploit the Covid-19 pandemic by weakening the unity of the West. By doing this, Russia can increase its role in international relations while simultaneously shrinking the influence the West has in the world. It is reasonable the European Commission wants more information and evidence about the cyber-attack on Poland before assigning blame, but it will not be surprising if when the European Commission receives more information it confirms that Russian hackers are the culprits.
