Poland shuts down government services platform ePUAP following cyberattack

Poland temporarily shut down a government platform used by citizens and businesses to access public services after detecting and stopping a cyberattack, officials said Tuesday.

The attack targeted ePUAP, a nationwide system that allows users to submit official documents, communicate with government agencies and complete administrative procedures online.

Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said security teams responded immediately to the incident and were working to restore the platform's full functionality.

"The cyberattack on the state ePUAP system was detected and stopped," Gawkowski said in a social media post.

The minister said the infrastructure of Poland's Central Information Technology Center, the government agency responsible for maintaining key digital services, including ePUAP, remained secure. 

Officials said the ePUAP platform was taken offline as a precaution rather than because of damage caused by the attack.

"It's not that the system was somehow compromised or its operation was disrupted by this attack," Marek Gieorgica, a spokesperson for the Digital Affairs Ministry, told Polish news agency PAP. "We simply disabled it as a precautionary measure."

Authorities have not disclosed how the attack was carried out or who was responsible. There has been no public confirmation that hackers gained access to government systems or stole sensitive information.

The ministry has not provided a timeline for restoring the platform, saying services will resume once security specialists complete their work.

According to a notice on the government's website, ePUAP electronic mailboxes remain unavailable to citizens and public institutions. The disruption could also temporarily affect the Trusted Profile digital identity system, which allows people to access public services and electronically sign official documents.

Poland has faced repeated cyberattacks targeting government institutions, critical infrastructure and private companies in recent months.

In October, Polish online invoicing provider Fakturownia reported a data breach that may have exposed information belonging to its users, customers and business partners.

In September, hackers also stole data from Qbusoft, a Polish healthcare software provider, following a separate breach involving medical technology company MyDr. Polish authorities said the MyDr incident potentially affected information relating to about 19 million people and roughly 12,000 healthcare organizations.