Poland says recent attacks on local politicians originated from Russia

The Polish government said that a recent wave of cyberattacks that have targeted the email accounts of local political figures originated from Russia.

The attacks have targeted some of the most important Polish officials, ministers, and deputies from various political parties, said Jarosław Kaczyński, Poland's deputy prime minister, citing sources from the Polish Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service.

"The analysis of our services and the special services of our allies allows for a clear statement that the cyber attack was carried out from the territory of the Russian Federation," Kaczyński said in a press release today.

"Its scale and range are wide," the Polish official said.

The announcement today comes after Polish local news outlets reported last week hackers broke into the email inbox of Michał Dworczyk, head of the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister's.

Throughout the course of the last week, the hackers leaked emails and documents from Dworczyk's inbox on a Telegram channel, according to Polish online news outlet Onet. Other documents were also leaked through the Facebook account of Dworczyk's wife.

The Polish official said some documents were altered.

In the aftermath of the hack, Polish authorities and politicians began reviewing the security of their accounts.

These investigations also discovered that Dworczyk's boss, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, had been using a private email account for official government communications, per Polish news site Wirtualna Polska.

Morawiecki said his Gmail account was not hacked as part of this campaign.

Per the Polish government today, these attacks are broader in nature than previously thought.

The Polish Internal Security Agency said today it also notified NATO allies of the recent Russian cyberattacks.

Polish officials said the goal of this campaign was to "hit Polish society and destabilize [the] country."

Warsaw officials had accused Russia of hacking government sites and launching influence campaigns numerous times over the past decade, including earlier this year when they claimed Russian hackers breached two government sites to spread false information about a non-existent radioactive threat.