General Karol Molenda said that there has been a sharp increase in cyber attacks on Polish ICT systems since February. The Commander of the Cyber Defence Forces attended the third Cyber24 Day conference in Warsaw, where experts addressed the most topical issues related to cyber security.

“From 14 February to the end of May, the number of malicious operations carried out by APT groups – i.e. specialised groups of hackers for the most dangerous cybercriminal activities, operating under the aegis of special services, also from Russia, increased fivefold compared to the previous year. „They are trying to attack us, while our task is to be one step ahead of the adversary to be able to implement appropriate security mechanisms in advance, so that these attacks cannot materialise”, the military officer said.

General Molenda pointed out that the cyber attacks targeted systems of critical infrastructure, systems of various public institutions and people working there, as well as ordinary citizens.

The Commander of the Cyber Defence Forces appealed to all web users to follow security rules and realise the scale of the threats.

“Most of the time, web users make the assumption that it doesn’t affect them. It turns out that this is a mistaken presumption, because sometimes, through web users and their unawareness, several attack scenarios can be designed. Therefore, each of us, if not for our national interest, but for our own interest, such as the security of money in a bank account or data, should lean on the issues related to cyber security”, said Gen Molenda.

The Cyber24 Day conference, organised by the Defence24 group, is one of the most important forums on the map of events that focus on cyber security, digitalisation and new technologies.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński