Poland points to Russian hackers in disruption of Euro 2024 broadcast

Poland’s state authorities said that Russian hackers could be behind the recent disruption to an online broadcast of the Euro 2024 soccer tournament. 

Over the weekend, unknown hackers attacked the website for the public television network TVP, which was broadcasting the Polish national team’s opening match against the Netherlands. 

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) incident began at the start of the match, making the online broadcast on TVP’s website temporarily unavailable, authorities said.

On Wednesday, Poland’s deputy minister of digital affairs, Pawel Olszewski, said in an interview with local media that all evidence pointed to Russia.

According to Olszewski, the goal was “to prevent Polish citizens from watching the match online” as the disruption began exactly at kickoff time — 3 p.m. on Sunday. DDoS incidents involve waves of fake internet traffic intended to overwhelm a website. 

“The attack was swiftly repelled,” he said. “Had our services not been alert, there could have been real unrest, as everyone was eagerly anticipating the Euro and this match.” The Euro tournament occurs every four years and draws worldwide interest as national teams from the continent compete for one of the sport’s most important trophies.

According to TVP’s statement, the attack was carried out from IP addresses located in Poland. Olszewski said that it doesn’t matter where the DDoS traffic originated from, as there are no borders in cyberspace.

He hasn’t provided more details on the incident  or what hacker group could be behind it, but said that it  is linked to Russia and is likely part of its “hybrid war.” Other countries in Eastern Europe have warned of similar campaigns. 

Poland has experienced an increase in Russian cyberattacks over the past few months, leading it to announce a $760 million investment in cyberdefenses.

Earlier in May, Russia-linked hackers published a false article about military mobilization on the news feed of Poland's state news agency, PAP, as part of a  disinformation campaign, according to the country’s state officials.

Russian state-sponsored hackers also targeted Polish government institutions in an espionage campaign, which was attributed to the hacker group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, associated with Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.

The country’s Digital Minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, said that Poland is “on the frontline of the cyber fight against Russia.”