Poland's Premier Tusk: Party Hit by Major Cyberattack Targets Computers
The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, stated that his center-oriented political group experienced a cyberattack.
On a social media platform X, Tusk stated that the available evidence indicated the attack likely originated from an "Eastern" source, which is presumed to point towards Russia or Belarus.
Tusk mentioned that his Civic Platform party's computer system faced targeting, prior to the upcoming presidential election scheduled for next month.
Tusk stated in his digital message that interference from abroad in elections has started.
Jan Grabiec, who leads Tusk’s office, informed the Polish national news service PAP that the cyberattack involved efforts to seize control of the computers used by members of the Civic Platform team and electoral personnel for approximately 12 hours on Wednesday.
When asked whether Tusk was accusing Russia or Belarus, Grabiec stated that it would be up to Poland’s secret services to address that, but he noted that in previous instances, Belarusians had penetrated Poland’s systems at the behest of Russian intelligence agencies.
Poland is just weeks off from the initial round of a presidential election set for May 18th.
The leading contender is Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate for the Civic Platform and the current mayor of Warsaw. Similar to Tusk, he holds a pro-EU centrist stance. His recent polls show him at approximately 35%.
His primary opponents consist of Karol Nawrocki, supported by the Law andJustice party, placing him second in most surveys with just above 20% support, along with SÅ‚awomirMentzen, a leaderoftheextreme right-wing group known as theConfederation,whohasbeen garneringapproximately20%inthepolls.
Should no candidate secure an absolute majority by obtaining at least 50% of the votes, a runoff election will take place on June 1st.