Researchers say Russian military intelligence hackers may be behind December cyberattacks in Poland

Researchers have linked the massive, multi-pronged cyberattack on Poland’s power grid in late December to hackers linked to Russian military intelligence. As per a report by cybersecurity firm ESET (via news agency Reuters), the attempted operation is being described as one of the most aggressive digital assaults on the country in a decade as it tried to knock down the country’s critical energy infrastructure during the final week of the year.

As per the report, the researchers identified the group as Sandworm, an elite unit within Russia’s GRU (military intelligence) with a history of launching some of the world's most destructive cyber operations.

Hackers used 'DynoWiper' malware to attack Polish energy system

According to the findings, the hackers attempted to deploy a new strain of malware dubbed DynoWiper which has been designed to act as a “wiper” – a type of malicious code in a software that systematically destroys files and erases data on targeted systems, effectively rendering the power grid’s control hardware inoperable.




Polish authorities and ESET researchers confirmed that despite the severity of the attempt, the attack failed. This is in line with earlier statements from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who declared earlier this month that the nation's defenses successfully repelled the intrusion.

“We’re not aware of any successful disruption occurring as a result of this attack,” ESET stated in its analysis.

The timing of the assault was noted as a symbolic “anniversary strike” by the Slovakia-based researchers. Interestingly, the December attempt to down the power system occurred exactly ten years after Sandworm carried out a historic attack on the Ukrainian power grid. The operation in 2015 resulted in the first-ever malware-facilitated blackout in history, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark.